Re-Vaccination.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 151, 1 October 1872, Page 6

Re-Vaccination.

We have received from His Honor tin Superintendent the copy of" a circular de spatch from the Secretary of State for tin Colonies, on the subject of Public Vaccina tion. From this despatch we print the fo| lowing paper,—which may be found of interest, —-upon " Re-Vaccination," prepared bt the Medical-Department of the Privy Conncil Office : By vaccination in infancy, if thorough]] well-performed and successful, most puoplj are completely insured, for their whole lit time, against an attack of small-pox ; audi the proportionately few cases where the pn, tection is less complete, small-pos* if it tj caught, will, in consequence of the vaccina tion, generally be so mild a disease as iiotti threaten death or disfigurement. If, but ever, the vaccination in early life have bea but imperfectly performed, or have from w , other cause been but imperfectly successful [the protection against small-pox is much Id i satisfactory ; neither hissing so long, » while it lasts being nearly so complete, astt protection which first-rate vaccination gives Hitherto, unfortunately, there has alwaj been a large quantity of imperfect vacciw tion ; and inconsequence th«. population jI ways contains very many persons who, tkni;i nominally vaccinated and believing theij selves to be protected against small-pox, an really liable to infection, and may in soul cases contract as severe forms of small-pox a if they had never been vaccinated. Parti; because of the existence of this large numba of imperfectly vaccinated persons, ;wc) 'tail because also even the best infanti: e that i tion sometimes in process of time ios-'hs lor less of its effect, it is advisable that al j persons who have been vaccinated in infancy J should, as they approach adult life, undergo j re-vaccination. Generally speaking, the time for re-vaccination is about the im when growth is completing itself, say frffl 15 to 18 years of age, and persons in thai period of life ought not to delay their re-v cination till times when there shall be sped alarm of small-pox. In proportion, howew as there is prevalence of small-pox in aaj neighbourhood, or as individuals are M personal circumstances likely to meet chara of infection, the age of 15 needs not" waited for ; especially not by young perw whose marks of previous vaccination are ■ satisfactory. Re-vaccination, once properly and succs fully performed, does not appear ever to i quire repetition. The nurses and other sa vants of the Small-Pox Hospital when the enter the service (unless it be certain w they have already had small-pox) are invar; ably submitted to vaccination, which in trow case generally is re-vaccination, and is $m afterwards repeated ; and so perfect is m protection, that though the nurses live in m closest and most constant attendance <■ small-pox patients, and though also theotlß servants are in various ways exposed B special chances of infection, the Surgeon of the Hospital, during his WB four years of office there, has never kno«B small-pox affect any. ono of these nurses* servants. I Legal provisions for re-vaccination [J made in the Bth section of " The Vaccinas"! Act, 1867," and in section IV. of the Begjj tions which the Lords of the nc ! l '?J authority of the Act. issued in their 0:J« of February 18th, 1868. Under these* visions, re-vaccination is now performed ■ all public vaccinators at their respecting tions ; and, so far as is not inconsistent' * ( the more imperative claims for cination, any person who ought to bei re- | cinated may, on applying to the pub" o , | tion of the district in which he resides, <•- tain re-vaccination at the public expense