DIPHTHERIA IMMUNISATION

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 257, 26 May 1944, Page 22

DIPHTHERIA IMMUNISATION

Reply to Dr.

Turbott

Sir.-Dr. H. B. Turbott takes exception to an advertisement published by the Auckland branch of the British Union for Abolition of Vivisection. The advertisement was the society’s answer to an advertisement issued by the Health Department on January 31, claiming complete safety and worldwide success of diphtheria immunisation for children. Dr. Turbott states that our advertisement is misleading, and our statements untrue. Let us examine the statements. The Health Department advertised that wartime Britain had treated 4,000,000 children in three years; very few were upset for even a single day; not one mishap occurred in that huge number. In our advertisement, figures were given from the House of Commons showing that there had been 9500 cases during those three years, and at least 41 deaths in 1942 and 21 deaths in the first six months of 1943, in fully immunised children in Britain. Is the British Minister of Health wrong, or are these not mishaps? We can substantiate our’ statement by other records of reactions and mishaps. Five doctors in the British Medical Journal, March 7, and 14, 1942, wrote on this question: "There is little doubt, however, that a certain proportion of reactions do occur." In 1940, Dr. Tudor Lewis, deputy Medical Officer of Health for Croydon, admitted he had 35 mild and eight severe reactions. Dr. Turbott says: "The statement that there has been loss of life is untrue in our time. There has been no trouble anywhere in the world with modern materials and techniques." We definitely challenge that statement. At Ring College, County Waterford, one girl died and a number of other children developed serious illness with tubercular symptoms, after inoculation against diphtheria, in 1937, not so long ago! On May 27, 1943, the case of a boy five-years-old was brought to the notice of the British House of Commons owing to severe reactions after immunisation by school authorities without parent’s consent. On November 24, 1942, an inquest was held at Coventry concerning a child‘ of five years, who died following inoculation against diphtheria. Failure of immunisation in a German town was reported in the British Medical Journal, June 25, 1938, Dr. Reinhardt admitting that 28 children in a convalescent home at Lubeck developed diphtheria though immunised under the best conditions. Our own mail and personal contacts tell us that it is too sweeping a statement to say that in New Zealand thousands are being protected each year, without trouble of any kind. Statistics show that not more than 10° per cent of children ‘ever contract diphtheria even in epidemics, so 90 per cent, in any case, are naturally immune. The latest figures published, 1941, show the total deaths for the whole of New Zealand to be 17, whereas deaths from cancer and heart disease run into thousands. On March 7, 1943, the (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) Minister of Health, Hon. A. H. Nordmeyer, stated in a broadcast, that "the figures for diphtheria showed a downward trend," so why this wholesale inoculation? : Dr. Turbott further objects to our point that no guarantee can be given that treatment will cause a decline in the cases of diphtheria, and gives figures from Scotland, New York and Canadian cities. Again, we refer to figures given by the Minister of Health in the British House of Commons in September, 1942. In Scotland in 1941, over 1000 immunised children were officially admitted as having contracted diphtheria, and between January 1, 1940, and September 30, 1941, 2380 children who had received a course of immunisation developed diphtheria. The fact that there were 14 times fewer cases in the immunised does not affect the point, which is that thousands of immunised children have contracted diphtheria. As for New York, the decline in diphtheria. had been rapid, before immunisation was practised, even as far back as 1915 when there was the greatest drop, before immunisation was even

thought of! Toronto and Hamilton’s histories show that there had been a great decline in diphtheria before immunisation was widely practised. Yet, some Canadian cities that have practised immunisation have not experienced any remarkable fall in diphtheria, for Quebec City, which started immunising in 1930, had a very serious epidemic of diphtheria in 1936. An intensive campaign was then carried out, and in 1938 Quebec City had the highest death-rate of the cities of the world, according to statistics published by the Health Organisation of the League of Nations. Also, as our advertisement pointed out, in wartime Germany and occupied countries, where inoculation has been made compulsory, there has been a severe epidemic, but in Sweden, where there is no immunisation, diphtheria is non-existent. We claim that our statements are true and worthy of consideration by all fairminded folk who wish to know both sides of the question.-L. I. OLDFIELD, Hon. Secretary, Auckland branch, British Union for the Abolition of Vivisec-

tion:

P.B.

A.