The Press TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1964. Poliomyelitis

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30338, 14 January 1964, Page 10

The Press TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1964. Poliomyelitis

Thanks to the dramatic success of the oral immunisation campaign poliomyelitis seems to have joined the growing list of once-terrifying diseases that have been conquered in New Zealand. In 1961, 261 cases of poliomyelitis were officially confirmed, and the Dominion seemed heading for one of its all-too-frequent epidemics. During the first three months of 1962, however, after the oral immunisation of infants had begun, only four cases were confirmed: since then there have been no cases at all. Credit for this must go to Dr. Sabin, the American who discovered the vaccine; to the Health Department, which organised the campaign; and to the public, which gave its strong support. Similarlystriking successes have followed campaigns in Singapore—the first area to use the vaccine on any but a pilot scale—Russia, Japan,

the United States, and other countries. The success of mass immunisation against such diseases as poliomyelitis, in which carriers outnumber by many times those who show clinical symptoms, depends on the immunisation of sufficient numbers of persons to block the spread of the organism causing the disease. For the effective control of poliomyelitis at least 70 per cent of the population must have immunity. With the country’s natural increase and the continuing arrival of immigrants and of New Zealanders returning from abroad, the percentage immunisation in the community will fall progressively unless new arrivals are immunised. It is therefore important that all these and any others who missed the original mass campaign should attend the anti-poliomyelitis clinics held regularly throughout the country by the Health Department.