PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

Health Department finally authorised its placement on the ‘free list’.
Vaccine Approval
By the early 1960s several changes had taken place in the way vaccines were
approved for use. Now vaccines needed to be endorsed by both the World Health
Organization (WHO), and the Epidemiology Advisory Committee (EAC). The EAC
was a panel of local experts who advised the Health Department on a number of
matters including vaccines and immunisations. 116 Such were the growing
complexities of vaccines and with an expanding number becoming available, it
became necessary to look outside the Health Department for specialist advice.
One international body consulted frequently by the Department was the WHO, which
had been established by the United Nations in 1948. New Zealand was one of 26
original member states, having joined the WHO on 10 December 1946 before it was
even ratified. 117 In addition to many health programmes conducted by its Operational
Services, the WHO also offered Advisory and Technical Services on health matters,
including immunisation. 118 Expert Advisory Panels comprised of the world’s leading
scientists and health administrators provided technical information and guidance in
their particular field. 119 The Health Department in New Zealand was enthusiastically
involved with the WHO from the beginning, sending two delegates, Thomas Ritchie
and Harold Turbott, both future Director-Generals of Health, to the inaugural meeting
in New York in 1946. The Department sent representatives to every World Health
Assembly, with Harold Turbott attending seven times. 120 In 1960 Turbott was elected
president of the 13 th World Health Assembly. This substantial involvement in the
WHO was continued by Turbott’s successor as Director-General, Doug Kennedy,
who was elected as one of the vice-presidents of the 25 th World Health Assembly. 121
One member of the Department wrote an article on the WHO’s work that was
116
The development of the Epidemiology Advisory Committee will be discussed further in Chapter 5,
pp.132-34.
117
F. S. Maclean, ‘The World Health Organization and its Work’, New Zealand Medical Journal
(NZMJ), December 1953, p.469.
118
ibid.
119
WHO, The First Ten Years of the World Health Organization, Geneva, 1958, p.153.
120
D. Dow, Safeguarding the Public Health A History of the New Zealand Department of Health,
Wellington, 1995, p.238.
121 ibid.,p.239.
78