PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

months previously at 12 months old. 86 A circular letter was sent to doctors asking
them to check how their vaccines were stored but such was the extent of cases that the
Health Department also arranged for the Australian Department of Health to assay the
measles vaccine to check its potency on arrival in New Zealand. 87 This was to be
carried out twice a year until the National Health Institute was in a position to take
over. In this way the Health Department hoped to eradicate the future possibility of
vaccine failure due to loss of potency or incorrect storage and prevent measles in
previously immunised children.
The measles vaccine also achieved prominence in other countries. In the United
States immunisation became a ‘high profile issue’ for the new Administration under
democrat President Jimmy Carter. 88 The ‘Childhood Immunisation Initiative’,
announced in April 1977, was a federal programme run by the Centre for Disease
Control which aimed to immunise at least 90 percent of American children and
develop mechanisms to ensure nearly 100 percent of all children born in subsequent
years received immunisations. 89 In October 1978, the Secretary of Health, Education
and Welfare, Joseph Califano, announced the goal of eradicating measles by October
1982. 90 There was the introduction of mandatory immunisation for school entrance
by the majority of states, which greatly assisted levels of coverage, indeed medical
historian Patrick Vivier has argued that the ‘school entry immunization laws were
viewed as a key mechanism for reaching these high rates’. 91 By 1980, 96 percent of
children entering school were immunised against measles and levels of over 97
percent were maintained up to 1985. 92 The ‘Childhood Immunisation Initiative’ was
itself deemed to be very successful, and, although measles was not eliminated by
1982, fewer than 2,000 cases occurred that year, the lowest on record in the United
States. 93 In comparison, pre-vaccine figures for 1960 showed a total of 441,703 cases
86
J. S. Roxburgh to DGH, 1 August 1979 and Director-General’s Meeting 28 July 1978, ABQU 632
W4415/345 50984 144/18, ANZ, Wellington.
87
ibid.
88
P. M. Vivier, ‘National Policies for Childhood Immunization in the United States’, p.168.
89
ibid., p.169.
90
A. Cliff, P. Haggett, M. Smallman-Raynor, eds. Measles. A Historical Geography of a Major
Human Viral Disease from Global Expansion to Local Retreat, 1840-1990, Oxford, 1993, p.222.
91
P. M. Vivier, ‘National Policies for Childhood Immunization in the United States’, p.176.
92 ibid., p.187.
93 ibid., p.190.
217