DIPHTHERIA DANGER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 112, 2 August 1927, Page 12

DIPHTHERIA DANGER

IMMUNISING CHILDREN WIPING OUT THE DISEASE “There are between 1,200 and 1.400 fatal cases of diphtheria in New Zealand every year, but the disease could be virtually eliminated in two or three years simply by immunising our children,” said Dr. E. B. Gunson, president of the Auckland branch of the British Medical Association, in a public lecture last night. ”L’p to six years of age all children are susceptible to diphtheria, but after that age natural immunisation develops. In New’ York in the past ten years, 700,000 children have been tested for diphtheria and 400,000 have been immunised. As a result the death rate has dropped from 22.17 to 7.9. “Diphtheria is one of the few instances where curative serum, as opposed to preventive, has given good results.” continued the doctor. Statistics showed that the virulence and attack rate of this disease had steadily increased. In the United States, however, as a result of active immunising methods, the incidence of diphtheria had steadily decreased at the rate of 24,000 cases each year. “The nurses in the Auckland Hospital are immunised against diphtheria, and diphtheria among nurses lias been practically wiped out.”