VACCINATION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 142, 10 March 1908, Page 8

VACCINATION.

BANE OR BLESSING? i ' J - •'

HOW LYMPH IS PREPARED,

CARE AND CLEANLINESS.

THE CASE FOR THE DEPARTMENT.

The New 'Zealand Vaccine Laboratory .is situated with other Government health buildings in Sydney Street. .It is here that vaccino is prepared and distributed over the Dominion. It.is here that the deadliest of yi-ars' is waged with ever-prying, übiquitous germs,' for vaccind lymph of all substances must be kept: absolutely free of extraneous influences. At , one timo the standard precaution , against >smallpox. was inoculation with the disease itself. A person was thus able ti-choose a time of good bodily health .when the disease, could best l be withstood. Tlio ; menace of this practico, however,, can ])e .easily ' imagined, both to the individual • and the community.'Then came the discovery 'of . immunity,• in times of the epidemic, of those engaged in milking cows, by it was supposed, and rightly so,'the antidotal effects of cow-pox, and consequently came experiments '• with.:calf.'ljr'inph,' which proved a slnecoss.For"' m'aiiy ..years" it ',was the. practice then to .vaccinate.from arm!to arm, but-'eyen this -is:'now forbidden .by the Legislature, arid'only''the'lymph, straight and pure from •the calf,: isallowed. ' Each child that is now i vaccinated has its own little. separate tube i of lymph. ' The Laboratory. The little-laboratory in Sydney Street is' two-storied, and is built of brick. One small square' chamber on the ground floor —spotlessly white—is thei stable of the chosen calf. ,Thero m its miniature stall of white-enam-elled iron, the calf is scrubbed'and'cleaned, oven to its hoofs. The temperaturo of tho room is carefully-regulated, and the whole place washedscrupulously with antiseptic. Clean as a newly bathed 'child the calf is then taken into-\ an; adjoining/ chamber, ( • and strapped to a . special movable table, where ••if is shaved : and prepared for the - operation. Each :person L . : wears:; the ..Vhito, sterilised uniform-, of'surgeon- engaged inan Operation. The same; precautions- as in an operation are observed. -Each-instrument-js sterilised ..in ;water : of a temperature/of 250 degrees Fahr., and. the hands of -the officials /have been: carefully ..washed with antiseptic soap. - :Everything .possible is, done to keep away extraneous matter. Light rsions'.aro mado in 1 the' skin;:of ,the; calf, erne" being taken not to draw blood, and the lymph 1 isrubbod" in. . Five ■ days ■ afterwards tho "pulp" (a: darkish.,kind of. Quid) arc.md these - incisions: is -scraped, off with sj-ecial; sterilised instruments, and " ' placed, .in* a sterilisedglass.. Its usefulness- over,'- tho calf is now killed—a victim to public necessity—and minutely examined. :for- tuberculosis or .other disease. Should any d'sease .be trae'ed the lymph is." destroyed, but not 'once yet' has this; occurred-'in the Sydney Street .Laboratory.,_<*J3very fortnight : a six-months-old .calf dies this glorified diat-h. yielding, about'.) 40 grammes of: "pulp," and providing -vabcinc- for four or. five -thousand persons! By, having frequent- collections of the lymph, a fresh; stock is , always, available.

Purify!, Purifyl .••• ■!-.< '•• Upatairainthosamobuilding the lyhiph , goe3 through" its final stages* before/ being j sent"out.:- The whole: process is very simple. , Tho apparatus is the same as that in us'o by . tho vlooM./Government Board in England; j TKo pulp' is:diluted -by weight; groiirid in a ■ .hopper, .to dej£troy' any germs''that may exist .in. it. The. '-j process is to blow chloroform vapour through ■ the pulp for a number of hours by means of j a wator pump, The .chloroform" is afterwards ■ blown out, and-plain ; air;, through. ! Cultures are then made, andthe vaccino , tested -to - see ithat the chloroform has : .done ■ its':work,> and ;that rip .extraneous germs-exist in. tho lymph, < The possibility of vaccination doiiig ,harm; lies in the. inclusion .of; any foreign.;. germs.' But ; with tho? methods' pursued, medical- men , say' there ; can' be absolutely- '.no - grounds . for ' fear. . ' And , onehas;V.tbut \to ■ 'follow! tho process to; ...prima ,v'facie ); .' believe ;:;thjs.,' Even the/.hand? 1 of > the. operators aro not' permitted; .to,coino 'once in contact with tho. ;Jymph. The only possibility in the process ;isthat the purifying.to which the lymph is sub-' mitted. : may : .endanger : its potency.; It .'is ac"ttially on; record 1 that'-, so "stringent has .been ; -the : rqfinins'.'tre&tmcrit,: that •; tho vaccine . germs themselves -been. destroyed, ! . If j lymph less .refined; were; sent out- tho' potency | wouldbe greater'/ perhaps, but: the Department officers state , ; thoy have received no complaint as : ,tp.impuro lymph". bfeing distributed, though thoy>might have, heard'some- ; thiii'g about, its. potency. HereNt should' bp , said; ,that- it • may.. occasionally>happen 'that, ■ undue ; 'inflammation or-evonv erysipelas will ; follow .the performance of vaccination, but, tho same result may follow (and often does) any trifiiii2-.hurt- or . abrasion r of-tho skin,; : Buch,as a sore p]ace or; tho scratch of a pin. ; 'Dirt,' duo ltd. parental '.carelessness, may get .- into the surface;of-,the ■ wound;'- Eveii in tW ,i old' days of arm-to-alrm vaccination it "was extraordinary how: few instances of troublo ■ occurred. ; Most'.of ~theso, it • was believed, woro due to tho vaccinated part being left bxposed td the-dirt..- .. To: returii,. howoyer. .As, soon as the health-' official is satisfied that tho lymph is ' freo frpm.:geirmsj;_,it is mixed?with glycerine, which isVantiseptic, '.and , then • packed away in ,an',ice-chest and kept at a .certain terii-- ' .porature.-- In bulk tho liqiiid has a brown Lapp.e'arance. l.Somotimes. the calf from' which it; is taken-may have'a' sensitivo skin and a good .ideal of blood. may conio away. This !givcs' th'o .lymph. a darker hue,' which lias Jed once, or -twice "to 'question its purity', though no harm whatever could result.' ' ' ' ' ;. ' Distribution. :, . ' j.-To . send'. out', the lymph it is inserted into' sniall"' needle-like glass tubes, each containing aldose. 1 Somo ingenuity is' displayed, in'filling'these tubes. It'is done'by mqans of an air force-pump driven by -lyater, ' and„each I'sterilised , tubo, being ;filled, is then sealed, up by , meltjng t-ho glass at both onds..| In this "'way contact" with tho hands is avoided . throughput,-: tho wholo process.. Those' tubes aro placed in a larger glass tube—six in, each—and so distributed to health, officers all over the Dominion, Eacli officer is supplied'with printed forms, which ho is req'uirpd to -return showing the num-ber.-of tubes received, and what was dono with ;.oachj : the date ; of x using the . lymph, whether it .Was for'-a primary or .a revaccination, tile age' of the person vaccinated,'and so ou. '' : ': '. .. '. ' , " , • ,'. Another Aspcct. . , ' ' Thero is ...another -side to vaccination. When; tho'birth of,-oacli is registered a form is : supplied "by-the Registrar to be filled up and returned stating that .the infant has-been vaccinated. Twelve months is .'allowed,. and if at-the end of. that timo vacoiiiation is, not-performed',the parent is liable, to prosecution.- Exemption, 'howeverj' can be prdcurod if the child is weakly and likely :.te -suffer '-from the irritation of -the operation. ; At present 'no small-pox, exists in New Zealand, but tho idea is ttf keep it 'out. • ; Onco the. disease gained a : footing here—which -is ■ not unlikely considering ftjiat. New •,Zealand is, in. the direct- line, of communication' with tho East —the harm supposing' vaccination, were not general, iwould, be dono before precautionary steps could bo taken. Each year Dr. Mason, Chief Health Officer, in his official report to 'Parliament, lays stress on tho importance of the people not evading the law regarding vaccination.. It is a duty,: he shows, that leach owes to the community. In-1906, out of 24,321 children .born in Now Zealand, ;4486 were ■vaccinated, 2964 wero exempted, 1 and 16,871 wore thus left unaccounted for. ■Thus". 81 per cent.- of the children born in ' ,1906-7; are unprotected against small-pox, | and the law in that number of cases has been broken! ; lLaxness. of Parents. • / [': "The present generation of parents," ; said Dr. Mason recently, " have, most of thorn, little knowledge of what a fateful,

disease small-pox is, and that the passing discomfort which attends vaccination easily makes the other scalo kick tho beam." When small-pox was present in Christchurch in 1904, 11,120 people were voluntarily vaccinated inthreo months! "The unfairness of expecting the officers of tho Department to control an outbreak of small-pox when the weapon they most rely upon is denied them, may bo passed ovor,',' is also a recent remark of Dr. Mason's, " but the fact remains .that many who now assume an academic calmness will inevitably join hands in condemning ■ the Department should tho Dominion over bo so unfortunate as to suffer as did Tasmania in 1903.'"

: In Britain ,in 1888-91, the proportion of deaths or serious injury after vaccination was aboyt ono in fourteen thousands, niid it is advanced that : even these isolated instances were due to the carelessness of thoso responsible for .the children. Awhile referring to statistics, it may bo as well to state that in European countries where vaccination is compulsory the proportion of deaths from small-pox is considerably less than in those where- the voluntary law obtains. In New Zealand, just at present, tho Maoris in the north of, Auckland have decreed it the fashion to be vaccinated, and consequently there -is .'a. considerable. demand ■ from there •for lymph". Wellington's, Vaccinated. 'In Wellington last year the births of 2000 children were registered, and only about 330 were vaccinated—equal to 16.5 per cent! : -Exemption was -claimed for 250. The, local Registrar states that it is usual for children to bo vaccinated after they have passed the stage of infantile complaints,- and this to a certain extent accounts for. the large number'that have hot yet been vaccinated. .' ■''. ,