PREVENTING SPREAD OF DIPHTHERIA

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 244, 13 July 1939, Page 13

PREVENTING SPREAD OF DIPHTHERIA

Immunization Campaign

FEW CHILDREN APPEAR NERVOUS

In the course of their campaign to immunize Wellington primary school children against diphtheria by means of three small doses of anatoxin, Dr. B. Wyn Irwin, Medical Officer of Health. Wellington, and two nurses on Tuesday continued their treatment of children in the Berhumpore school. Work among the children at the school, which has a roll number of 390, was begun on Thursday when they were given skin-tests to determine whether the injections were necessary. lii between 15 and 20 per cent, of the Lises, the tests were found to give negative reactions, showing that the children had acquired immunity to the disease and needed no further treatment.

A “Doriilnlon" reporter, who visited the school on Tuesday morning at the invitation of the Health Department, was afforded an opportunity of seeing the children receiving the treatment. A feature which has pleased the Health Department very greatly is the number of pre-school children who are being brought forward for treatment by their parents in response to the department’s appeal. On Tuesday, 37 pre-school children, ranging from four years down to a sturdy baby of ten months, were given injections by Dr. Irwin.

The greatest possible care is taken to sterilize all the instruments and utensils used by the doctor and his assistants. Bowls, syringes, needles and other articles are kept for at least ten minutes In boiling water before being used, and the hands of the doctor and the nurses are rubbed with a disinfectant lotion. A fresh, sterile needle is used for each injection and the arm of each child is swabbed with alcohol. Smiling Children. Nearly all the children who were being given the injections faced the doctor without nervousness, as they had already received their skin-tests and knew that beyond u slight prick and a sensation of smarting afterward, the treatment would not be painful. One or two of the toddlers, who were accompanied by their mothers, whimpered, or cried, but on the whole, the behaviour of the children was exemplary. After they had received the treat-ment-constant repetition had made the doctor so deft that the whole thing was over almost before the child had realized it—the children remained seated for a few minutes, each with a sleeve rolled up.- They looked at each other,, laughing and giggling in soft tones and the tears which nervousness had brought to a few eyes, dried usually before they fell. Then, ushered out by a teacher, they were soon playing happily.