[Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Weymouth & Melcombe Regis Borough.

  • Weymouth and Melcombe Regis (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Weymouth & Melcombe Regis Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/44 (page 14)
    WEYMOUTH 8C MELCOMBE REGIS CORPORATION ACT, 1935—SECTION 106. Under this Section of the local Act (which is now superseded by Sec. 47 of the National Assistance Act, 1948) one elderly female patient who required urgent medical and nursing attention and who was living in most un-hygienic surroundings was remov¬ ed to Hospital:—and later transferred to an Institution—the magistrates making an Order for three months. Diphtheria Immunisa.ion. For the first time since November, 1942, a case of diphtheria was notified affecting a Weymouth resident. The following report was made to the meeting of the Health Committee on 16th April, 1948 : On the 1st April, 1948, a young lady, aged 19 years, was admitted to the Isolation Hospital suffering from Diphtheria. This is the first Weymouth patient to suffer from Diphtheria since November, 1942, and the fact that for a period of 5^ years the Borough has been free from this formerly serious disease is, I think, striking evidence of the value of immunisation and a proof of the benefits conferred on the community by preventive medicine. In the 15 years prior to 1943, there were 406 cases of Diphtheria in the Borough, with 18 deaths. The patient removed to the Isolation Hospital on 1st April had not herself been im¬ munised against Diphtheria as her parents had been unwilling to allow any of their children to be protected. They have, however, now agreed to their children being immunised and this has been done. The Committee may be interested to know that from 1938 up to the end of 1947, i.e. in the last 10 years, 7,570 Weymouth children have been immunised against Diphtheria, and of the school children examined as a routine measure during 1947 at School Medical Inspections 98.8 per cent, were found to have been immunised. It has become known in recent years that protection against Diphtheria is at its maximum for four years after the original inoculation and after this time immunity begins to become less. This possibility had been borne in mind locally for some time and steps have been taken and continue to be taken to maintain the high degree of immunity in the child population by giving one reinforcing or booster injection every four years until school leav¬ ing age is reached.” Up to the end of June, 1948, 327 children had been immun¬ ised for the first time, while during the whole year ’890 reinforcing or booster” injections were given—the great majority of these in schools at periodical medical inspections.