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41
Diphtheria Immunisation.
During 1937 the Council have continued to hold a diphtheria
immunisation clinic at the Essex House Maternity and Child Welfare
Centre each Wednesday, the immunisation being undertaken by a
specialist Medical Officer appointed by the Council for this purpose.
(a) Work of the Clinic during the Year.
Information is given below as to the work undertaken in connection
with the scheme during the year ending 31st December, 1937 :—
During the above-mentioned period leaflets were issued to 1933
mothers drawing their attention to the facilities available at the Clinic
for their children.
Requests for testing, and immunisation where necessary, were
received from parents during 1937 in respect of 359 children.
On the 1st January, 1937 there were 56 applications, received
during 1936, which had not been dealt with by the end of that year.
These cases and 304 of the applications received during 1937, making
360 in all, received appointments to attend at the Clinic. Fifteen
of those appointed had not attended by the end of the year, the parents
having withdrawn their applications or postponed attendance on account
of ill-health of the child.
The number of children dealt with at the Clinic during the year
totalled 592, consisting of the above-mentioned 345 children plus 247
children whose course of injections had commenced in 1936 but which
had not been completed by the end of that year.
The position as regards these 592 children on the 31st December,
1937 is given in the accompanying Table (page 42).
Forty-seven sessions of the Clinic were held and the attendances
made by the 592 children numbered 2,169, an average of 46 children
per session. The work of the clinic has run very smoothly and the
attendance of the children has been regular.
(b) Method of Procedure.
The procedure which has been adopted at the clinic has been
as under:—
All the children (including those under 5 years of age) have
received a primary Schick test to ascertain their susceptibility to the
disease.
The immunising agent used has been T.A.M., three immunising
injections of which have been given.