TROOPS AND TYPHOID

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2370, 28 January 1915, Page 9

TROOPS AND TYPHOID

COMPULSORY INOCULATION REPLY TO ALLEGATIONS Colonel J. 11. Purdy, Director ot Medical Services, mado tho following statement to a reporter yesterday, with reforenco to tho letter in a local journal regarding inoculation of typhoid vaccinc:—"The facts are not as stated in the letter," ho said; "dozens of men may havo boon seon lying oil their beds, but they were not suffering agonies of pain. No mon were admitted to hospital from the effects of inoculation. About .15,000 men of tho New Zealand army havo boon inoculated for typhoid since tho war broke out, and there lias not been a single bad result recorded, and what is much more to tho point, there has not boon a singlo caso of typhoid reported. The inoculation for typhoid is compulsory. Inoculation and vaccination are synonymous terms. Throo injections are not given—ono injection is made, preferably on tho right or loft breast, 0110 and a half inches below the ccntre of tho collar-bono; a second injection is mado on the tenth day in tho same site. After tho injection tho men aro advised to rest as much as possible, as tenderness begins tx> make itself felt in five or six 1 hoursThis is at its worst in oighteon hours, and is generally confined to a radius of two inches, occasionally there is somo tendei'iioss of the corresponding lymphatic glands. _ These tendcrnosses are all cleared up in forty-eight hours at the outside. Some degree of malaise is usually produced. There is usually a_ slight rise of temperature, which subsides by the end of twenty-four hours. Dip whole procedure is slight. The pain of tho injection is loss than tho scratch of a pin. Tho resulting ellccts aro not very pronounced, and aro over on an average ill sixteen hours.- As already stated, thore has been no serious result in any of the 15,000 cases inleeted. "lho ultimate result of anti-typhoid inoculation is now well known. It has stood the test of time. In the United States of America, where typhoid fever is very prevalent, voluntary vaccination was begun in the United States army in 1909 —four soldiers availed themselves of it. In 1910, 10,000 woro vaccinated. In 1911 the procedure was made compulsory. Before 1910 the annual incidence of typhoid varied from 6.9 per thousand in 1902 to 3.2 in 1908 In 1910 it was 2.4, in 1911 &nd 0.85, and in 1912 0.31.

A division of troops, about 20,000 men, was mobilised in Texas in March, 1911. lhey remained in camp and on march for a period of four months; then the majority returned to permanent army posts. . All these men were vaccmatod against typhoid. Tho immunisation was carried out after the troops wero mobilised, and whilo they were under canvas, without interfering with their work. As a result only two cases of typhoid woro recorded —one in' Texas and ouo in California—both ending in recovery, in tho entire number of troops in the field. In 1898, during tho Spanish war, 10,759 assembled at Jacksonville. There were over 2000 eases of typhoid, with 248 deaths. This camp lasted about tho same length of timo as tho Texas ono, and tho number of troops was considerably less, yet tho.y had over 2000 cases, with 248 deaths; and in 1911 there were two mild cases. This immunity was not due to lack of exposure, sinco the fever prevailed to a cousidcrablo extent in Texas. '

"Tho British Array statistics furnish examples equally good. In the British Army, although at present vaccination for typhoid is . not compulsory, practically all tho members of the Ex. peditionary Force woro vaccinated, and at present nearly all tho mobilised troops in England have ' been inoculated."

_ As further evidence of the value of inoculation the Director of Medical Services quoted the following cablegram, which appeared in a recent issue of The Dominion, giving the latest announcement made by Sir Frederick Treves, tho eminent British surgeon: "Sir Frederick Treves, pointing out the ™luo of iucculation, states ■ that .only 212 cases of typhoid occurred in tho British Expeditionary Force, including eleven men who had been inoculated. There were twenty-two deaths, and in none of these cases had tho men been inoculated." , Tho new posters, issued by the Defence Department in regard to recruit ting, make it clear that inoculation is necessary in the interests of soldiers and tlioir comrades. A clause on tho poster says: "In the interests of himself and his comrades, every soldier is required to have been vaccinated and inoculated for enteric; No recruit will be accepted unless ho agrees to vaccination and inoculation."