[Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Colchester Borough.

  • Colchester (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1948
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1948] / Medical Officer of Health, Colchester Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    own that diphtheria can never be dismissed lightly. It is- nv generally agreed that immunisation in infancy—preferably the age of nine months or so—confers on the child a high ^ree of protection against the disease which lasts for several ears but tends to diminish with the passing of time. In a mber of children the fall in immunity bj^ the age of five is- Efficient to allow of the contracting of a mild or moderate ^ack of diphtheria. This is consistent with the figures just ■ oted. Because this can happen, it is desirable that children should we a “ booster dose ” of immunising material when they start ciool, thus ensuring that protection is again brought up to a ally safe level, and such doses are available for all children nose parents are willing. It may be that because Colchester iildren have been free from diphtheria for so long parents •e beginning to think that there will never again be any nger. I hope this is not the case, because complacency of as kind might give diphtheria a chance to spread and become 'real menace once more. Both primary immunisation and loster doses are still well worth while in the interests of safety • d I hope that there will be no neglect of these simple and ’ective measures. iMeasles and whooping-cough were both more prevalent than aring the preceding year. Measles tends to run in a two-yeai' iidemic cycle, an epidemic year being followed by a year witn imparatively few cases. Neither the occurrence of an itidemic nor its size was, therefore, at all surprising. Almost 1 the cases occurred in children under the age of ten and the ast majority, as is usual, occurred in children under school i|?e and in the first two years of school life. Few of the cases ere very severe or attended by dangerous complications and ') deaths arising out of measles were reported in Colchester aildren during the year. (Two children died of whooping-cough, a disease which is i)t only distressing but also dangerous, especially to the very bung child. Attempts to introduce immunisation against the isease have, in the past, been made with varying success, lecent large-scale trials of new immunising materials suggest •at there is a likelihood of efficient immunisation becoming merally available fairly soon, possibly within the next yeai so.