Policy On Salk Vaccine Attacked

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30843, 31 August 1965, Page 14

Policy On Salk Vaccine Attacked

(New Zealand Press Association) HAMILTON, August 30. If it did not ensure that the salk polio vaccine was available to private doctors, the Health Department would be to blame for the return of poliomyelitis to New Zealand, said Dr. R. B. Tennent, of Ngatea, in a letter in the August issue of the “New Zealand Medical Journal.”

“The time has come when suitably equipped doctors, especially in the country, should have Salk vaccine made available to them,” Dr. Tennent said. “To say we are not equipped to run clinics is insulting. At the present time patients in this district have to go up to 25 miles to protect their children. “If something is not done, the Department of Health will be to blame for the return of poliomyelitis to this country. “In my opinion, it is failing in its job through shortsighted obstinacy and lack of faith in general practitioners.” Dr. Tennent said a check on all babies delivered by

him and his partners in 1964 showed a disturbing situation. “Of the 124 deliveries in this practice, 94 were traced,” he said. “This may seem a high attrition, but in a dairying district, there is a big annual change of population. “Of these 94, we had immunised 92 against diptheria, pertussis and tetanus. The district nurse had done one, and one was not immunised. “However, only 76 had taken their babies for Salk vaccine, in spite of being told to do so. The failure rate broke down as follows:

Pakeha 14.8 per cent, Maori, 63.5 per cent ,over-all 19 per

cent “Furthermore, the failures were, as one would expect, mostly from the less well-to-do home—just those most likely to get disease of this type,” Dr. Tennent said.