DOCTORS BUSY.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 180, 30 July 1913, Page 6

DOCTORS BUSY.

VACCINATION AFTER-EFFECTS. DUE TO STRONG LYMPH. In Auckland there are only SO doctors. Twenty thousand oi the population of the city have been vaccinated, and =o many people are seriously ill as the result of vaccination that there are scarcely enough doctors to go round. Several leading medical men, seen by a "."Star'' representative this morning, stated that never in their experience had they known such serious results to follow vaccination. Patients are ill in bed. racked with excruciating pains. A marked constitutional disturbance—rise of temperature, headache, and general malaise— is naturally to be expected, particularly amongst adults who have never been vaccinated before, but during the past three weeks a large percentage of Auckland people who underwent the operation have suffered very severely indeed. Temperatures as high as 104 have been quite commonly recorded, followed by all kinds of extraordinary complications. The reason cannot be ascribed to lack of care on the part of the vaccinators, since in more than one case doctors report dire consequences in their own homes. One instance may be quoted in which two members of a doctor's honsehold have been in such pain that morphia has had to be injected to induce sleep and relieve suffering. Offices a,nd business placet all report numerous cases in -vhicb staffs have been seriously slhorihr.nded as the result of vaccination aftereffects, and this may account to some extent for the fact that the "vaccination craw " has suffered a sudden flump during the last few d3ys.

One doctor, when seen by a reporter on the subject this morning, said that he bad so many cases of severe results following upon vaccination that be had actually declined to vaccinate, further patients unless after receiving his advice they still desired to undergo the operation. "The lymph is undoubtedly to blame," he added. "There is no evidence that it is contaminated —in tact, tests have been made which prove that it is not —it is the method of preparation which is at fault. The lymph is too new. and a mistake has been made by the Health Department in not having stored it for the requisite period before sending it out for public use. Bosanquet and Eyre, two authorities on the preparation of serums and vaccines, lay it down as a cardinal principle in the preparation of lymph that it should be kept in a cold dark place for some weeks before being used. In the present case Auckland people have been vaccinated with lymph which is virulent because it is new. whereas if it were kept for the stipulated time it would he normal, and produce only a normal effect. In this respect, the Health Department i;greatly to blame," added the doctor, "for only the other day we had the extraordinary statement that the Department destroys any lymph that has been in stock for more than a scar, and that the cost to the State in this respect runs into £1.500 per year. Any number ol authorities can be quoted to show that vaccine kept at ten decrees Fr. is still quite active at the end of four vcar-. In fact. 11. R. Mulford, of Philadelphia, rroes so far as to say that lymph may be. kept indefinitely at a temperature of five to ten degrees centigrade What ha.s happened in Auckland is that overstrong new lymph ha.sly-en used: it has reduced patient- lo a state of health below par. and chills and other influences have led to complications."

Asked how it was that in some cases, where whole families had been vaccinated, half the inmates of .the household vrere now violently ill. while ; be remaining members had failed to "take" at all, the doctor said he thought he knew of a possible explanation. The Health Department. ; n sending out supplies of lymph, also gave all kinds of instructions as to its use. but failed to remind vaccinators of one very important thing

that the value of the lymph could be absolutely killed hy three days' exposure lo the temperature of the human burly. The small tubes of lymph were included in a larger, cigar-shaped glass tube, which easily fitted into t.he vest pocket. and a oV.~t.or would only have to carry his supply of lymph in his coat poekci. and submit it. to the warmth of his body for three days in order to quite destroy •its value.