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A Review of Immunisation in Chingford during the years 1935-38.
The Chief Medical Officer to the Ministry of Health in his
recent report states "that immunisation in this country makes
continuous if slow progress, but no city," he says, "has yet
succeeded in immunising the 50—60 per cent, of the child population
which is necessary before the incidence of diphtheria is
affected." In this connection the following figures are of interest.
During the four years 1935-38 the total number of new births
in Chingford was 1,080 and during the same period 462 children
under 4 years of age received a full course of injections at the
clinic; in addition a certain number of children in the same age
group was immunised by general practitioners. It appears, therefore,
that immunisation during the last 4 years has been at the rate of
about 45 per cent, of the new births in the district. During the
same period the total number of all children up to 14 years of age
known to have been immunised was 2,514. In order, however, to
estimate the percentage of the child population which this figure
represents it would be necessary to know, besides the total births,
the number of immigrants into the district during the past four
years, for which there are no reliable data, and immigration is a far
from neglible factor in Chingford. It seems clear, however, that
the time is approaching when the incidence of diphtheria in the
district might be expected to fall as a result of active immunisation.
It will be seen from table 1 that 7 cases only were notified
during 1938, the lowest number recorded for ten years: Nevertheless
it would be unwise to claim this as a triumph for immunisation,
although this remarkably low incidence should surely encourage a
renewed and determined effort to increase the proportion of
protected children in the district.
In the report of the Medical Research Council for 1937-38 it is
remarked that "one of the most striking instances of the delay in
the application of new knowledge is the relative lack of public
recognition, in Great Britain at the present time, of the existence of
a method of proven value for the prevention of diphtheria." The
report refers also to the impressive result obtained by immunisation
in Canada and the United States of America and cites as an
example, the town of Hamilton, Ontario, with a population of
175,000 in which not one case of diphtheria has been diagnosed in
the last five years. In 1936 the death rate of children during the
ages of 1 to 15 from diphtheria was 2.1 per 100,000 in New York,
but 31.8 per 100,000 in England and Wales.
Is it then apathy or ignorance which allows 60 per cent, of the
parents of Chingford to neglect to have their children protected
against a dangerous and not uncommon disease at the price of two
small injections?
Tuberculosis
There were 37 cases of pulmonary tuberculosis notified during
1938, a decrease of 14 on the previous year, and of these, 15 or 40
per cent, were transfers from other districts
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