CHILDREN'S HEALTH

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LII, Issue 17186, 9 November 1926, Page 5

CHILDREN'S HEALTH

DIPHTHERIA PREVENTION INOCULATIONS NEXT WEEK The inocul;,l ions of school-children in tkc Poverty Bay district as a menus of preventing the propagation of diphtheria bacilli, will lie undertaken next week by Dr. .Mercer, health officer for the Hawke's Bay district, ami Dr. Clark, school medical officer. ' It had been intended to gel the campaign under weigh this week, but the presence of the school inspectors in the district caused a postponement until next week, when the pupils of the Gisborne Central school whose parents have signified their consent will be inoculated. To-date it has been apparent that the parents misunderstand in some cases the necessity for forwarding their authority for the inoculation. The medical authorities do not undertake the inoculation of children unless the parents consent, the submission of the school pupils to the injection being entirely a matter ot choice for the parents. The excellent results obtained elsewhere by the-use of the toxin anti-toxin us a preventive against diphtheria,, and the acceptance of the practice of inoculation, justify an expectation that the number of children to be treated will comprise. tho majority of the pupils of the school. STRIKING ENDOJISEMENT. A striking endorsement of the inoculation system recommended. by the Health Department comes from the. East (.'oast, where during the last winter there have been remarkably few cases of typhoid, whereas for many years typhoid constituted one of the greatest perils to the continuation of the Maori race. The improvement in the health of the natives is largely attributed to the adoption of the system of inoculation, with the approval of the tribal leaders. Throughout tho Waiapu, the school children and adults are treated as a matter of course nowadays, at stated intervals, an. effort being made to visit every school in the county in every period of two years. What has been accomplished in the suppression of typhoid may well he equalled in the campaign against diphtheria, and parents will receive assurance from the fact that the system adopted by the Health Department is identical with that, approved and practised by the Bi'il ish Ministry of Health and many oilier progressive' health institutions. Arrangements have been made whereby the toxin antitoxin may be supplied to doctors for - private inoculations, where so desired by parents of schoolpupils. _________