WAR ON DIPHTHERIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19170, 9 November 1925, Page 10

WAR ON DIPHTHERIA.

ANTI-TOXIN TREATMENT. INOCULATION OF CHILDREN. DEPARTMENT'S CAMPAIGN. The opinion that if all children were given injections of toxin-antitoxin, diphtheria would practically be stamped out in New Zealand was expressed by Dr. J. H. Crawshaw, medical officer of health, on Saturday. He stated that this form of prevention was beyond the experimental stage and it was just a matter of getting the consent of parents to have their children inoculated. " The Heatlh Department is doing its utmost to stamp out the disease," he continued. " The school medical officers, who are working under the direction of the Health Department, are injecting antitoxin in children where the consent of parents lias been granted." > The difficulty of getting parents to consent to inoculation of their children was (referred to by Dr. Crawshaw. In this respect the work of the Health Department was hampered. As a matter of fact the operation was simple, harmless and practically painless. One injection could be administered in thirty seconds and the children wore given one injection a week for three weeks, obviating the necessity for ono large injection. The injection did not give immunity for .two to six months after the final operation, but a child was then considered immune for six to eight years. At the end of that time most children would be at an age when the chances of catching the disease were slight. Under the present scheme forms are sent to parents asking them if they desire to have their children inoculated. If they consent the medical officers attend to the rest. Inoculation is not confined to school children. Children who have not started school will be inoculated if the parents wish it. " The operation is not at ali analagous to vaccination, as in the case of small-pox," said Dr. Crawshaw. " No mark whatever is left and the inoculation is perfectly harmless in every way." Speaking of the good effect of the toxin-antitoxin inoculation, Dr. Crawshaw referred to. the Year Book for 1925, which showed a considerable faliirig-off in the incidence of the disease since the Health Department- put its inoculation scheme intc practice. In 1919, befoie the scheme came into operation, 3499 cases of diphtheria were notified in the Dominion. In .1920, the year the scheme was adopted, there were 2442 notifications In 1921 there were 2611 notifications, in 1922, 1989 notifications, and in 1923, 1951 notifications. These figures show a steady decline. When ho was medical officer of health in Dunedir children in three schools were inoculated. Epidemics of diphtheria occurred in the three succeeding years and not one of the children contracted the disease, inoculation was favoured in America and was now being adopted in England. " One only has to look at it from the question of primary school training, apart from the question of ill-health," said Dr. Crawshaw. " Here the work is dislocated during the course of an epidemic and great anxiety is occasioned by those who control education. I firmly believe that if we could get the consent of all parents to have their children inoculated with toxin-antitoxin we could stamp the disease right out."