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Southland Times, Issue 23182, 24 April 1937, Page 12

The statement that the belief held in some quarters that children could not escape infectious diseases was a dangerous fallacy was made by Mr W. M. Armour, senior inspector of the Health Department in Auckland, in addressing the New Zealand branch of the Royal Sanitary Institute (says The Auckland Star). Mr Armour said the sooner the public got rid of such ideas the better it would be for the future of the race. One had known foolish parents deliberately placing a healthy child in contact with an infectious case, giving as a reason that the sick child had but a mild attack, and the sooner the healthy child was infected and recovered the better. Mr Armour added that there was no guarantee that a child infected by a mild case would develop only a mild infection, or that the child would be immune during its lifetime from further attacks. Every year that a child was free from an infectious disease improved its chances of escaping altogether.