SPREAD OP DIPHTHERIA.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 37, 14 February 1939, Page 10

SPREAD OP DIPHTHERIA.

IMMUNISATION CAMPAIGN,

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.*

WELLINGTON, Monday

To combat the spread of diphtheria in Wellington, officers of the Health Department within the next few weeks will undertake an immunisation campaign among school children, This will take the form of three small injections. The consent of the parents is being sought for the treatment.

Dr. B. Wyn Irwin, medical officer of health, Wellington, who will be in charge of the campaign, in an interview to-day appealed to parents to consent to children receiving protective treatment. Diphtheria was still too prevalent in New Zealand, he said. The Dominion figures for the first five weeks of 1939 were almost double those for the same period in 1938. From 1932 to 1037 notification totalled 40C0, and it was surprising that 91 per cent occurred in the North Island.

The rising tendency in the returns since 1934, the lowest year since the disease became notifiable, was commented on by Dr. Irwin, who said the Department was anxious for that reason to ipunise as many children as possible.