Risks of small pox in view of the declining vaccination returns of the country / by A.K. Chalmers.

  • Chalmers, A. K. (Archibald Kerr), 1856-1942.
Date:
[1914?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Risks of small pox in view of the declining vaccination returns of the country / by A.K. Chalmers. 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.

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    Vaccination Officers' Returns, 6i per cent, were successfully vaccinated in 1898. This rose under the stimulus of concurrent Smallpox to nearly 76 per cent, in 1905, but in 1910 it fell to 56 per cent. The Return on Table No. 34 (page 161, Appendix) of the same Report, is even more emphatic, as it gives the ratio of successful primary public vaccinations to births. Here the increase in 1905 rose to 54 per cent., but the fall in 1911 was to 39 per cent. These latter refer entirely to vaccinations performed by Public Vaccinators. In Scotland the tale is somewhat similar. In 1900, the number of successfully vaccinated children among the surviving births in that year, was 94 per cent. In 1906 it was still 91 per cent; but in 1909 it had fallen to 71 percent. The experience of Glasgow may be told in the following paragraph from my leport for 1912:— Until 1907, the percentage of successfully vaccinated children remained fairly constant. The average was about 84 per cent. This percentage has rapidly decreased, so that in igio it was less than 65, the difference being mainly due to the increase in the proportion of declarations of statutory objection to vaccination, which in that year reached 16 per cent. Those appearing under the heading removed from district, or otherwise unaccounted for, show an mcrease during the last four or five years, and indicate the existence of a degree of laxity regarding vaccination which extends beyond those who take the trouble to make a formal declaration of conscientious objection. The local records of Glasgow may also be used to illustrate the danger of importing the disease. Glasgow is directly associated with the Canadian traffic, during the Summer months, when the St. Lawrence is open to shipping, the vessels arriving from Montreal average about two per week. During the period between 15th June and the end of October, 1913, 48 ships, with crews numbering 9,173 and passengers 1,354, arrived in the Port of Glasgow from Canadian Ports. The time taken to complete the journey is usually eight or ten days so that when Smallpox is endemic in Montreal, as it has been during many months of the past year, many who must be regarded as likely to have been in contact with Smallpox disembark and must be kept under observation over the remaining days of the incubation period. Of the total number of the crews above stated the addresses given by 1,439 were without the City boundary, as were also i,o86 of the passengers, or respectively 16 and 80 per cent., while the number of addresses given wrongly (crew 87, and passengers 14) was equal in each case to fully i per cent, of the number whose home addresses were given as within the City. From the numbers given above there are, on the average, about 400 arrivals per week who require supervision. The passengers in many cases are tourists and remain in Glasgow for a day or two before proceeding to various places throughout the Country, so that