Final report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the subject of vaccination.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on Vaccination.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Final report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the subject of vaccination. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

    150/748 (page 140)
    jLid,o;mGnt, no consideration of cost ought to be allowed to stand in the way of any iirn]5rov8ment which would render the operation less burdensome or diminish its risk. It is onlv fair to demand this if vaccination is to remain compulsory. In this con- nexion we may observe that the public vaccinator ought, in our opinion, to be under an obligation to afford medical attendance without cost to the parent in all cases ia which the vaccination does not run an ordinary course, and owing to supervening illness such attendance becomes necessary. Whether the fee paid in respect of vacci- nation should be fixed at such an amount as to cover this extra attendance in the exceptional cases in which it would be requisite, or whether it should be the subject of special compensation, is a matter of detail on which the Local Government Board is in a better position to form an opinion than we can be. Inasmuch as compulsory vaccination is justified on the ground that it is not a matter which concerns alone cither the parent or the vaccinated child, we think a provision such as we have indicated would be both just and reasonable. 533. YV'e have already adverted to the importance which we attach to re-vaccination. It has been suggested that the operation should be made compulsory by law. We are quite alive to the protective value of general re-vaccination. At the same time we are not insensible of the difficulties necessarily involved in rendering it compulsory. It is, comparatively speaking, easy in the case of infants to ascertain whether the law requiring vaccination has been complied with. The constant movement of the ])opulation would render it much more difficult to ascertain whether at the more advanced age at which it would become applicable, a law providing for compulsory re-vaccination had been observed. Again, it is impossible to leave out of sight the effect that such an extension of the present compulsory law might have in intensifying hostility, where it at present exists, and even in extending its area; though if our recommendations, especially that which exempts from penalty those who honestly object to the practice, were adopted this objection would be much diminished. After full consideration of the question we are, however, deterred by the considerations to which we have adverted from proposing that re-vaccination should be made compulsory. At the same time in view of the great importance of re-vaccination we think it should be in every way encouraged. If an adequate fee were allowed in every case of successful re-vaccination, by whatever medical man it was performed, we think there would probably be a large extension of the practice. We think steps should be taken to impress on parents the importance of having their children re-vaccinated not later than at the age of twelve years. We recommend further that when small-pox shows signs of becoming epidemic special facilities should be afforded both for vacci- nation and re-vaccination. 534. We think that notification of small-pox should everywhere be compulsory, and, whenever the disease showed a tendency to become epidemic, a notice should be served by the sanitary authority upon all persons in the neighbourhood who would be likely to come within the reach of contagion, urging them to submit to vaccination or re- vaccination, as the case might be, if they had not been recently successfully vaccinated or re-vaccinated; and attention should be called to the facilities afforded for their doing so. Attention should also be called to the importance of avoiding contact with persons suffering from the disease, or coming into proximity to them, and of avoiding contact with any person or thing which may have become infected. It is important to notice that, even where vaccination has been neglected, there isgreat readiness to submit to it in the presence of a threatened epidemic; a large number of vaccinations are then obtained willingly and without opposition. Whenever a sani- tary authority has received notification of a case of smaU-pox, we think the fact should be at once communicated to the vaccination authority of the district in which the case of the disease has occurred. 535. We desire to call attention again to the recommendation, which we made in our fifth interim report, that persons committed to prison by reason of the non- payment of penalties imposed under the vaccination laws, should no longer be treated as criminals. We stated in that report our reasons for this recommendation, to which we still adhere. If, however, the changes in the compulsory provisions of the vacci- nation laws which we have suggested were adopted, the matter would lose much of its importance.