London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Richmond upon Thames 1933

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Richmond]

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60
done by one with much experience of it and it takes some time to
acquire the necessary experience both in the injection and in the
estimation of the result.

It may be interesting to give a summary of a series of Schick tests at various ages.

Age.No. tested.PositiveNegative
No.Percentage.No.Percentage.
Under 5 years78174495%375%
Up to 6 years1263118093%837%
From 6 to 10 years2054164680.2%40819.8%
From 11 years to adult life50733!)66.9%16833.1%

Out of these, 4,605 tested 3,909 were found to be susceptible
or 84%. In Richmond there will be roughly 5,000 children under
school-leaving age. With the same percentage as in the group
mentioned 4,200 of these children would be susceptible and could
be immunised.
Immunisation.
It has been found that immunity can be given to persons who
are found by the Schick test to be susceptible.
There are two methods of immunisation possible
(1) the injection of Antitoxin Serum (the same serum as is used
in the actual treatment of the disease) and
(2) inoculation with a toxoid-antitoxin mixture.
The first of these confers merely a passive immunity of short
duration, whereas the latter will give an active immunity which is
likely to last for some years—if not for life. But this latter
method takes time both in its application and in its working so
that it is not suitable for dealing with contacts, with the idea of
preventing them getting the disease. It is, however, suitable
for the purpose of immunising all susceptibles, just in the same