VACCINATION

Hokitika Guardian, 7 August 1928, Page 4

VACCINATION

i NOT CAUSE OF SLEEPING. SICKNESS. AYELLTXGTOX. Aug. 5. In a London cable message published a few days ago it was stated that a. report by file British Ministry of Health attributed vaccination for smallpox to be one of the causes of lethargic encephalitis, .sometimes called sleeping .sickness. This experience, however, is exactly the reverse of that : in Now Zealand, where notifications of lethargic encephalitis have been associated with inactivity in vaccination. Enquiries made from the Department of Health on Saturday show that during tlio year ended March 31st, 1928, 29 cases of lethargic encephalitis were notified in New Zealand, and that all but five of these people were over 25 years of age. Tn the first half of the present year, from January Ist to June 30th, there were 13’eases notified, and all but two of them were people over 15 years of age. For the year ended March 31st last the deaths from the disease totalled 12, and for the first six months of this year the number was eight. 'Pile observation made in the message from London blaming vaccination as a cause of lethargic encephalitis was commented upon last evening by the Director of Public Hygiene, Dr. T. AlcKihbin, when asked to say whether in New Zealand’s experience there were any reasonable grounds for assuming that lethargic encephalitis was caused by vaccination for smallpox. Dr McKibbin replied that on the contrary it was only since about 1919 that the disease had been at all prevalent in the Dominion. Tn was only in 1919. subsequent to the great influenza epidemic that the disease was first recognised in New Zealand. “There has,” he added, “been very little vaccination performed since 1919. In certain former years, however, during epidemics of mild smallpox, particularly 1913, a good deal of vaccination was performed, and no instances are known to the Department of subsequent lethargic encephalitis shortly after vaccination. It appears obvious in New Zealand’s experience that the occurrence of lethargic encephalitis has been associated with inactivity in vaccination, rather than the reverse.”