TO COMBAT DIPHTHERIA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 119, 12 July 1911, Page 7

TO COMBAT DIPHTHERIA.

O The chairman, of the Melbourne Board of Health drew the attention of the Board last week to a sample of anti-toxin serum which had keen submitted to him by a Melbourne firm as a means of-preventing serious outbreaks of diphtheria. He went on to state that diphtheria was largely a school disease, and difficulty was experienced in stopping epidemics owing to the difficulty of controlling the carrier. Even when the carriers had been discovered there w;is great difficulty what- to do with them, because to isolate all the suspected cases was out of the question. If it were not possible to isolate the cases at toe hospital and in the homes, something must bo done to stop the spread of the disease. The injection of an anti-toxin serum was open to the objection that many parents would not wish to call in a doctor to use? the needle. This proposition of the taking of an antidiphtheria serum by month was therefore to he welcomed. He had! discovered some literature on the subject, and found statistics which showed that after a dose of the serum (which was about 500 units) out of 31'SO people exposed to .diphtheria only twenty-seven had contracted the disease. In another instance it was shown that out of 6506 children exposed to the disease there had only been 92 cases. This dose which had been submitted to him had been made up with glycerine, and put up in the form of 500 unit dose, and. was often given diluted with milk. One dose was sufficient. Dr Ham added that the price was Is 6d for the dose, while 5s to 7s was paid for an injection. He considered it would ho a means of preventing an epidemic and save lives of children, and in cases whore the disease did afterwards develop, it would he a means of modifying it. He intended to investigate the dose submitted to him, and if he were satisfied, he proposed to recommend the Education Department to take large quantities for distribution.