Medical Superintendent Critical Of Statements Against Inoculation
“It is unfortunate that the Press has burst into headlines with statements which, to the average person, suggest that inoculation against diphtheria and whooping cough can cause poliomyelitis,’’ stated the, medical superintendent, Dr. H. L. Widdowson, in his annual report to the Wanganui Hospital Board.
"Such, of course, is not the case. We know that minor operations during a poliomyelitis epidemic may invite infection and it is possible that inoculation may have a similar effect. This only proves that inoculation should be given when the child is perfectly healthy and not during an epidemic. It would be disastrous if people were prevented from having their children inoculated by such statements, because diphtheria and whooping cough are much more deadly than poliomyelitis,’’ Dr. Widdowson added.
The report stated also that last year there were only three cases of diphtheria, this diminution undoutedly being due to the preventive inoculation. In reply to a question, Dr. Widdowson said that the Press reports referred to originated from overseas.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WC19500421.2.33
Bibliographic details
Wanganui Chronicle, 21 April 1950, Page 4
Word Count
171Medical Superintendent Critical Of Statements Against Inoculation Wanganui Chronicle, 21 April 1950, Page 4
Using This Item
NZME is the copyright owner for the Wanganui Chronicle. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of NZME. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in