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25
Requests for testing, and immunisation where necessary, were
received from parents during 1939 in respect of 71 children.
On the 1st January 1939 there were 4 applications, received
during 1938, which had not been dealt with by the end of that year.
Of these cases and the 71 applications received during 1939, making
75 in all, 62 received appointments to attend at the Clinic. Five
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having withdrawn their applications or postponed attendance on account.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 110, consisting of the above-mentioned 57
new cases plus 53 children whose course of injections had commenced
in 1938 but which had not been completed by the end of that year.
The position as regards these 110 children on the 31st December,
1939 is given in the accompanying Table (page 26).
In addition to the above 110 children, 182 children attended for
their second post-Schick test two years after immunisation, making a
total of 292 children attending during the year.
Twenty-three sessions of the Clinic were held and the attendances
made by the 292 children numbered 671, an average of 29
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.
The number of cases in which a second course of injections
(usually two in number) has been required before complete immunity,
as shown by the Schick test, was established has been very small.
Four instances have occurred in the year's work.
In every case a Re-Schick test after a negative primary Schick
test, or a Post-Schick test after immunising injections, has been performed
and a negative result obtained before issuing a certificate of
natural immunity, or of artificial immunity after protective injections.
Reactions after injections have been very few in number, and
those that occurred were only slight in degree.