PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

advised that antiseptic should be used by CSL in all vaccines to prevent
contamination. 27
This disaster had serious repercussions in Australia. In a press release put out just
before the Bundaberg tragedy the Department of Public Health had advised parents to
have their children immunised against diphtheria. 28 Extensive publicity was given to
this disaster in the newspapers and at the Brisbane Children’s Hospital and in towns
diphtheria immunisation was stopped within forty-eight hours of the event. 29 Historian
Claire Hooker has argued that as a result in ‘most areas immunisation was not
undertaken again for the next few years, although she pointed out that it is unclear
how much the delay was due to community resistance or to political caution. 30
Across the Tasman Sea, the New Zealand Health Department had just extended the
immunisation programme but felt that, ‘In light of the few tragedies at Bundaberg and
elsewhere it is open to doubt whether, particularly in New Zealand, immunization
with toxin-antitoxin should be recommended’. 31 The Health Department noted that
although they were using CSL vaccine there had been no unfavourable side-effects
other than of a ‘slight and transient nature’; fresh vaccine was used every day and not
carried over. 32 Nevertheless, Bundaberg was a serious blow to immunisation in New
Zealand as it dampened the enthusiasm and confidence of the Health Department and
the Division of School Hygiene in the safety of the vaccine. The programme fell
‘temporarily into abeyance’ due to ‘much public alarm’. 33 By 1928 parents had been
taking ‘advantage of this treatment fairly extensively’ at schools located in parts of
Auckland where diphtheria had occurred. 34 Such was the impact of Bundaberg that
by 1932 the Department predicted that ‘unless the public avail themselves more
widely of this proved preventative we must expect in the course of the next year or
27 ibid., p.26.
28 P. J. Tyler, ‘An Irreproachable Instrument? The Board of Health and Public Health Administration
in New South Wales, 1881-1973’, unpublished PhD dissertation, Armidale, University of New
England, November 1998, p.195.
29 C. Hooker, ‘Diphtheria, Immunisation and the Bundaberg Tragedy’, p.70.
30 ibid.
31 AJHR, 1928, H-31, p.12.
32 AJHR, 1928, H-31, p.25.
33 AJHR, 1932-33, H-31, p.2.
34 ibid.
33