[Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, Birmingham.

  • Birmingham (England). Council.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, Birmingham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    59/168 (page 55)
    VACCINATION. Since April 1st, 1930, wlien tlie Local Government Act, 19'29, came into force, the adminis- tration of the \’accination Acts has been carried out by the Public Health Committee. Below are tabulated statistics relating; to this work for the current year, together with similar figures relating to each year since 1928. It will be seen that the percentage of successful vaccinations has fallen slightly, while the slight increase of conscientious objectors experienced during recent years continued in 1934. Coupled with this latter fact, however, it is to be remembered that only four cases of smallpox have occurred in the City since 1928; so that there has been no strong incentive to have vaccination performed where parents are otherwise hesitant. Vaccination. 1934 1933 1932 1931 1930 1929 1928 Births returned 15,703 17,063 17,832 17,866 17,590 17,786 17,954 Conscientious objectors, per cent. 29.5 28.0 28.0 26.8 25.2 20.4 18.7 Died unvaccinated 823 830 958 841 900 939 1,020 Successful Vaccinations (per cent. of survivors) 53.1 55.4 54.8 54.3 53.7 62.0 65.0 Insusceptible . . 0.5 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 0.5 0.7 Postponed by Medical Certificate . . 0.5 0.4 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.4 Removed 4.1 3.8 3.5 4.5 5.1 4.1 3.9 Lost sight of ,, ,, 2.6 2.6 2.7 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Still under notice 8.0 7.6 7.9 9.2 10.5 9.1 7.7 MEASLES. .All cases notified to the Department through the schools have been systematically visited by health visitors, and advice as to nursing and general hygiene given where required. During the year 209 cases were admitted to Little Bromwich Hospital for treatment. .Since the third quarter of 1930 immunisation methods, even though on a restricted scale, have been applied to the attenuation of infection or the prevention of the disease. It is known that the blood scrum of a person who has previously suffered from measles, when given intramuscularly to contacts in suitable amount and at a suitable stage in the incubation period, will either prevent the <lisease occurring, or so modify it as to make the attack a mild one. It has happily been made possible to augment considerably the supply of serum by the very generous co-operation of the Birmingham Blood Transfusion Service, whose members have kindly come forward to act as donors. This serum has been given to selected children under five years of age who had been in contact with measles and who were either also acutely ill with some other disease or were in a state of chronic ill-health. In most of the cases the aim was, not to prevent infection, but to attenuate it, thus obtaining life-long immunity without grave disturbance of health. Apart from cases referred by health visitors and general practitioners for such immunisation, some of the voluntary hospitals requested help with a view of preventing further cases occurring in their wards where there were