DIPHTHERIA MENACE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 5 August 1941, Page 3

DIPHTHERIA MENACE

HEALTH OF CHILDREN' SAFEGUARDED IMM UN ISATION WOK K ! Diphtheria causes much illness, some [ of it fatal, every year, but it can be ; prevented. The majority of young children are liable to contract the disease , it it occurs in the neighbourhood; those | between the ages of one and five vears i are most likely to contract it. The Department of Health hopes to safeguard j children through the dangerous years. ! and is offering protection to those bej low seven years of age, to those not yet 1 at school, and to those in the first-year ; classes at school. - j Discussing the immunisation work i now being carried out by the Health Department as a routine measure. Dr. IH. B. Turbott. Director of School Hygiene, said that each time the school I doctor visited a school for medical ini spcction work she was also prepared t to immunise children below seven years ; of age. the treatment consisting of three I injections of anatoxin at approximately i monthly intervals. Though the department was prepared ; to immunise all primary school chil- ; dren whose parents desired it. the work I was being concentrated on the younger | children because experience had shown that the attack-rate and the death-rate of the disease icl 1 sharply from about the eighth year. Toddlers from one year to five years were particularly susceptible. | ‘There is no compulsion about this ! preventive work." said Dr. Turbott, I "and the consent of the parents is al- , ways obtained beforehand. As the rej suits of tile immunisation are becoming more widely known, the pereent- ; age of parents unwilling to allow their } children to be treated is steadily fallj pig. When the first big campaign for i immunisation was conducted in the Poverty Bay district in 1930, it was rej garded with suspicion by many parents. and 70 per cent, refused to allow j their children to be treated. To-day the percentage of refusals throughout i New Zealand is only about 40 per cent. "Though we do not expect ever to be able to get 100 per cent, of consents, what the department ! would like is 100 per cent, of consents for toddlers. If we can get ‘bat. then we can practically drive diphtheria out of New Zealand in five or six years.” DEATH-RATE DECLINING The last annuai report of the Health Department shows that diphtheria decreased in New Zealand last year, there being 067 cases notified as against 517 in 1039 There were 15 deaths, giving a death-rate of .10. compared with 34 deaths or a death-rate of .16 in 1930 Discussing the immunisation campaign in the report, the Director-General of Health. Dr M. H Wait, says "In New Zealand. th ■ campaign * against this disease by means of active immunisation was continued and the results have been encouraging where it has been carried out for an extended period. In the East Cape health district. for instance, a programme of immunisation of children was begun in 1930. In 1929 the case rate for 10.000 <;! mean population in that area wn.18.11. and in 1940 it had fallen to 1.32. "The immunisation of children of school age will not. in itself suffice to reduce tho incidence of diphtheria. Children of pre-school age must also be protected. Parents of children entering school will be invited to have them : protected against diphtheria when the ; school medical officer carries out the medical examination of the school : Steps have also been taken in co-opera- [ tion with the Plunket Society to make these protective measures available to ! pre-school children attending the child j welfare clinics conducted under the ! auspices of that body ' It is intended at a later stage to j adopt a similar procedure with regard | to xvhooping cough, as it has recently j been established that this disease can j be greatly reduced by treatment with