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42
Diphtheria Immunisation.
During 1938 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, 1938:—
During the above-mentioned period leaflets were issued to 539
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 1938 in respect of 127 children.
On the 1st January, 1938 there were 55 applications, received
during 1937, which had not been dealt with by the end of that year.
These cases and the 127 applications received during 1938, making
182 in all, received appointments to attend at the Clinic. Eleven
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having withdrawn their applications or postponed attendance on account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 attending for immunisation at the Clinic
during the year totalled 323, consisting of the above-mentioned 171
children plus 152 children whose course of injections had commenced
in 1937 but which had not been completed by the end of that year.
The position as regards these 323 children on the 31st December,
1938 is given in the accompanying Table (page 43).
In addition to the above 323 children, 46 children attended for
second post-Schick test 2 years after immunisation, making a total of
369 children attending during the year.
Forty-four sessions of the Clinic were held and the attendances
made by the 369 children numbered 1,365, an average of 31 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.