VACCINATION DEATH.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5478, 23 September 1929, Page 1

VACCINATION DEATH.

FATAL DISEASE.

CORONER HOPES FOR REMEDY.

Having investigated the case of a girl who died a fortnight after vaccination, Dr. R. L. Guthrie, the East London coroner, expressed the hope that scientific investigators would soon find a remedy for a strange disease. He received the report of an expert who conducted a post-mortem examination of the boy of Ethel Florence Brackley (5), of Halley Street, Stepney, the daughter of a coal trimmer.

It was disclosed by the father that his child was taken to the Mile End Hospital at the beginning of June suffering from pneumonia. She had practically recovered when there was an outbreak of smallpox in the institution. She was vaccinated, with his consent, on June 26. He was not allowed to see her until July 10, when she was unconscious, and she died the following day. Dr. Coyle, medical officer of the hospital, confirmed this statement. The child, he explained, was vaccinated on June 26. On July 8 she became very excited. Then she became drowsy, complained of headache, and had all the symptoms of encephalitis. She was practically comatose, and in a deep stupor on July 10. One other child, added Dr. Coyle, was vaccinated with the same lymph and had recovered. The lymph came from the Government establishment.

Dr. Edward Weston Hurst, a pathologist, who made the postmortem, stated that he found that the brain and spinal cord were congested and showed encephalitis. All the other organs were healthy, and the blood was free from infection. Roughly one case in 50,000 developed the disease.

Coroner : However careful one may be in the preparation of the lymph, this disease may occur from time to time ? '

Dr. Hurst : Yes. The risk of developing this disease is much less, however, if vaccination takes place in infancy. It occurs chiefly when vacination is performed in late childhood and adult life. Dr. Hurst added that the disease occurred sometimes after measles and influenza. It seemed that the patient was suffering from latent infection, which lit up when vaccination was performed. It was a peculiarity which at the present time the medical profession was unable to recognise. Recording a verdict of death by misadventure, the coroner remarked that there was a certain risk taken when vaccinations were performed which doctors had not recognised until recently. “The whole thing is very much in the air,” he concluded, “and statistics do not seem very reliable.” Reference to this and other cases of encephalitis was made by Dr. M. Beddow Bayly, who was a member of a deputation from the National AntiVaccination League, who waited on the British Minister of Health, Mr A. Greenwood. Dr. Bayly contended that as the smallpox now prevalent was'of so mild a character it was unnecessary to urge vaccination. Mr Greenwood stated in reply that he thought that politically it would be very difficult to pass through Parliament a Bill to repeal the vaccination laws. He promised, however, that he would give his close personal attention to the deputation’s statements.