PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

of polio in Canada up until 1962. 12 As with works on an individual disease,
immunisation was encompassed within the story. Rutty made an important
contribution to the historiography of the polio vaccines as he examined the significant
and often overlooked contribution of Canada to their development in the later
chapters. He also highlighted the role of Connaught Serum Laboratories and the
contribution of key players who helped bring the vaccine and immunisation
campaigns to fruition. Again, however, the work was introspective, focusing
primarily on Canada, although the contribution and influence of the United States was
acknowledged. Polio vaccine developments in other parts of the world were largely
ignored as well as the views of those ‘from below’. Nevertheless, it was a detailed
and careful account, which provided a comparison for the New Zealand polio
experience and was especially useful for contributing the ‘other side of story’ of the
SV40 controversy of the 1970s and 1980s in New Zealand. 13
Jennifer Stanton’s thesis also focused on a disease, this time on hepatitis B in
Britain. 14 Additionally, she published an article based on the chapter on hepatitis B
immunisation. 15 In both the article and thesis she examined the issues which
determined hepatitis B immunisation policy in Britain. Policy at the time was to offer
immunisation only to ‘at risk’ groups which included health workers and drug users.
She argued that because of a number of factors including the high cost of the vaccine,
the relative confinement of the disease to the ‘risk groups’ and stigmatization, any
further extension of this policy was not advocated. This provided a direct contrast
with the situation in New Zealand where the threat was to all children. Stanton did not
make any comparisons to experiences overseas; the United States experienced a
situation similar to the one in Britain but this was not discussed.
One PhD thesis which focused specifically on immunisation was by Patrick Vivier.
He considered national immunisation policy in the United States from 1955. 16 One of
12
C. J. Rutty, ‘Do Something!...Do Anything! Poliomyelitis in Canada 1927-1962’, PhD thesis,
University of Toronto, 1995.
13
For a detailed discussion of SV40 and its impact see Chapter 8, pp.232-38, pp.244-49.
14
J. M. Stanton, ‘Health policy and medical research: hepatitis B in the UK since the 1940s’, PhD
thesis, London University, 1995.
15
J. M. Stanton, ‘What shapes vaccine policy? The case of Hepatitis B in the UK’, Social History of
Medicine, 7, 3, 1994, pp.427-47.
16
P. M. Vivier, ‘National Policies for Childhood Immunization in the United States: An Historical
Perspective’, PhD thesis, John Hopkins University, 1996.
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