PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

Nevertheless, the pertussis vaccine did achieve a landmark in immunisation history in
New Zealand as it became the subject of the first question on immunisation in the
house since the repeal of the compulsory vaccination acts. The importance and
visibility of immunisation as a public health measure was steadily growing.
Parents could choose to immunise their children against pertussis but it was not part
of departmental policy and hence received very little publicity from the Health
Department. The Department had decided in 1943 there would be no campaign for
pertussis in the same way as diphtheria until ‘some experience of its protective value
has been gained’. 55 Testing had shown that the vaccine itself was only about 60
percent effective and the Department was hoping an improved vaccine would be
developed postwar. 56 Another significant aspect of the pertussis vaccine was the way
it was introduced into New Zealand, which was not by the Health Department as with
diphtheria, but by medical practitioners, some of whom were keen to use it even
before it had been approved by the Department. As will be seen with some other
vaccines, for example hepatitis B in the 1980s, the Health Department was not often
the prime instigator when it came to vaccine introduction. Doctors commonly took
the initiative in various ways whilst the Department adopted an increasingly careful
and cautious approach to immunisation. In the case of pertussis, lack of publicity by
the Department meant many parents were probably unaware of the vaccine’s
existence. In addition, the effort of taking a child an extra three or four times for an
injection plus the associated cost may well have proved too much, as by 1947 only
4892 children had been immunised. 57
Double Vaccine
The important role of doctors in introducing vaccines can be clearly seen with both
the advent of the double and triple vaccines in the 1940s and 1950s. These vaccines
together with polio also led to the gradual establishment of more formalised
procedures governing the supply and use of vaccines than had been the case
55
H. B. Turbott to MOH Auckland, 10 May 1943, ABQU 632 W4415/275 55580 131/128/1, ANZ,
Wellington.
56
H. B. Turbott to G. E. Amos, 30 June 1944, ABQU 632 W4415/275 55580 131/128/1, ANZ,
Wellington.
57 AJHR, 1948, H-31, p.22.
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