[Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, East Suffolk County Council.

  • East Suffolk (England). County Council.
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, East Suffolk County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/82 page 16
    As mentioned under Health Visiting, there is no doubt that the health visitor can play an important part in this Service by advising the parents of the continued necessity for vaccination and it is hoped that this, in ad- dition to a letter which is sent to parents of children born alive, will ensure that the number of children vaccinated remains at a high level. Immonisatioo Against Diphtheria. Many of the remarks above relating to vaccination will refer also to immunisation against diphtheria. From 1st January, 1946 responsibility for immunisation rested with the Welfare Authorities, and in the County the greater number of the immunisations were carried out by the Council’s staff. In the Municipal Borough of Lowestoft, as a separate Welfare Authority, similar arrangements prevailed. Immunisation was carried out at Infant Welfare Centres and at special sessions at schools and this proved to be reasonably satisfactory. From 5th July, as with vaccination, parents could if they so desi'red, arrange for the immunisation of their children through their family doctor, and all the general practitioners were asked to co-operate with the Council in this, and were informed of the arrangements for the supply of prophylactic. Record cards were supplied and at first these were returned with some regularity, but it cannot be said that the figures at the end of 1948 show a true return of immunisations carried out by general practitioners. The table below shows the position as obtained from the records available. The figures show as nearly as can be calculated that a good proportion of children received primary immunisation and again I think that much of the continued success of immunisation will depend on the enthusiasm of the health visitor in encouraging parents to have their children immunised in infancy. During 1946 a big campaign was carried out during which some 13,000 school children received the re-inforcing dosage and consequently numbers to receive such treatment in successive years has been very small. However, there are still some children who have not received the re-inforcing dose and this is being done at routine school inspections and special immunising sessions. It is hardly necessary for me to comment on the success of the immunisa- tion scheme when related to the incidence of notified cases of diphtheria and it is most gratifying to find that in the County only one case was con- firmed during 1948. TABLE X. Number of children at 31st December, 1948 who had completed a course of immunisation at any time before that date. Age at 31.12.48 i.e., born in year Under 1 1948 1 1947 2 1946 3 1945 4 1944 5-9 10-14 ; 1939-43 1934-38 ' Total 10-14 Number immunised 86 2022 2607 2237 1889 4722 1980 15543 Estimated mid-year child population 1948. childien under 5 18534 children 5-14 ' 30101 1 This table gives a summary of the figures available in the Department.
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