PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

to have it bussed in an icebox from the hospital, to send it back for freezing again
each night. 92
The first shipment of polio vaccine was suitable for use for 24 hours only after it had
been opened and arrived in 10cc phials only; a dose was 1cc. The initial campaign
commenced in Auckland on 24 September 1956 and it had been decided by the
Committee, in line with British policy and experience, to give each nine-year-old
child two shots of vaccine with a gap of about four weeks. 93 In order to minimise
vaccine wastage seven and eight-year-olds were also given consent cards and after all
nine-year-olds had been immunised any spare vaccine was issued to these pupils. City
schools usually had enough nine-year-old pupils to receive all the vaccine, however at
the last school attended on each day eight-year-olds could be offered vaccine if any
was spare. According to the Waikato Times, ‘when there is some material left in the
bottle and volunteers are asked for from seven and eight-year-old groups there is often
a scramble to receive the remaining doses’. 94
Nevertheless, Medical Officers of Health in their reports on the campaign focused on
the difficulties of administering the vaccine to the nine-year-old group and it was
suggested it would have been easier to have done all in the five to nine group at each
school progressively. 95 It was pointed out that ‘For political reasons it is desirable to
maintain uniformity as if 5-year olds were vaccinated in one district and not in
another there would be some public criticism’. 96
Erratic supply played a major role in determining the implementation of polio
immunisation policy. The timing of the programmes was fixed purely on the arrival
times of the vaccine and problems with supply often caused much frustration. It also
meant programmes had to be ready to go with little notice as vaccine often arrived
well into its life span; poliovirin had an expiry date of four months and immunisation
teams often had to work very hard to complete the programme. With the arrival of the
1956 vaccine at the end of September, teams had only two months before the vaccine
92
J. A. T. Terry to A. J. Curruthers, 17 April 1958, BCAA 1990/430b Polio vaccination programme
organising 1956-58, ANZ, Auckland.
93
NZH, 23 August 1956.
94
Waikato Times (WT), 2 November 1956.
95
MOH Palmerston North to DGH, 12 November 1956, H1 26133 144/17, ANZ, Wellington.
96
Circular Memo 1957/22, 25 January 1957, ibid.
143