[Report 1958] / Medical Officer of Health, Aberdeen County Council.

  • Aberdeenshire (Scotland). Council.
Date:
1958
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1958] / Medical Officer of Health, Aberdeen County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/52 (page 5)
    -5- These arrangements, although listed specifically here, are in fact extremely.flexible and it/is doubtful if they could be extended and yet remain within the general terms of reference of the Domestic Help Service. It is felt that they have been effective in keeping certain categories of elderly persons out of hospital, especially in the populous areas, but difficulty still arises in certain of the more remote parts, and in the case of elderly persons who will not agree under any circumstances to receive assistance from the local authority either through a domestic help or otherwise. The work undertaken by the Domestic Help Service continues to increase although there is still great difficulty in obtaining suitable helpers. At the end of the year, 115 part-time Domestic Helps were in employment and during the year 252 cases had been attended. Of these, 52 were in respect of confinements either at home or in hospital and 116 were in respect of chronic sick or aged and infirm persons. 6. Vaccination and Immunisation (a) Vaccination against Smallpox During the year, 1,487 persons it ere vaccinated for the first time and 342 were revaccinated. Of the primary vaccinations, 1,403 were in respect of children born during the years 1957 and 1958. Again the vaccination rate is considered to be highly unsatisfactory. There is reason to believe that general practitioners are carrying out many more vaccinations against smallpox than are being notified to the Medical Officer of Health but it is felt that it would be unwise to assess the vaccination state of the public by any method other than the factual notification of successful vaccination having taken place. (b) Diphtheria Immunisation No confirmed case of diphtheria was reported during the year 1 958 and in fact no confirmed case of diphtheria has occurred in the County of Aberdeen during the past 5 years. The last occasion on which a case of diphtheria was notified was in 1 953 when a mild case, which recovered completely, occurred. Since 1956, however, the organised programme whereby schools • were visited by a Medical Officer as a routine has been held in abeyance owing to the availability of poliomyelitis vaccine and the demand to have it administered. As a result, as the following table shows, only 1,700 children received a complete immunisation course during the year, and only 266 received a reinforcing inoculation. These figures, although comparable with the figures for 1957, are considerably below the average and, moreover, are considerably below the number which ought to be given in order to maintain a safe immunisation rate. It is hoped, however, that by the summer of 1 959 the programme of work connected with protection against poliomyelitis will have been completed and that it will be possible to revert to the programme of diphtheria immunisation. Table/