The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

16 The Health Bulletin April, 1951provided by means of what are calledbooster doses — one injection of thecombined immunizing agent is given atone year, three years, and at schooltime.This same physician went on to saythat these immunizations can be givenseparately. Your family physician willadvise you as to the best procedure foryour child. If you prefer, you may secureimmunizations at your local healthdepartment, without charge.Smallpox immunization should be administeredat the age of one year, orsoon thereafter. You may be interestedto know that smallpox now is presentin many countries, including England,which has socialized medicine, and nolaw requiring immunization against anydisease.The North Carolina State Board ofHealth, according to the physician incharge of Epidemiology, receives frequentreports of travelers who are comingto North Carolina, by air, fromcountries where smallpox exists. It isnecessary for these people not only tobe vaccinated, but to remain under observation,during the incubation period.Do Not Relax EffortsAll of this means that, although youmay not hear about smallpox, you cannotafford to become lax in the matterof vaccination against it. Therefore, itis highly desirable that every child bevaccinated, preferably at the age ofone year, and certainly before enteringschool.Diu-ing times of war or even mobilizationfor defense—as at present—thepopulation undergoes serious disruption.More people are traveling about. Housingconditions become overcrowded inmany areas, especially those adjacentto military establishments, or wheremunitions of war are manufacutred.We have examples of this in our ownState. Where there is actually wardamage, these conditions become muchworse and existing medical facilitiesare inadequate.In 1945 — just six years ago — diphtheriasuddenly became epidemic inthe wartorn areas of Germany. At thesame time, many of our service menbegan returning home. Apparently,some of these and other travelers fromthat part of the world became carriersof diphtheria. The result was that,here in the United States, diphtheriaalso increased. To bring this problemeven closer home, the 1945 diphtheriacases in North Carolina were more thandouble the number for 1944. We mustprotect ourselves from a recurrence ofthis unfortunate happening and, notonly that, we should take advantage ofall the immunizing agents, so thatevery child is protected as fully as possible,not only against diphtheria, butagainst all other preventable diseaseswhich might become epidemic duringperiods of great stress.The Epidemiologist for the StateBoard of Health has provided the followingsummary of this discussion. Hemakes five points, namely:(1) All children three months of age,and older, should be immunized immediatelyagainst diphtheria, tetanus,and whooping cough.(2) All children one year of age, orolder, should be vaccinated againstsmallpox.(3) Booster doses should be given tochildren at one year, three years, andbefore starting to school.(4) Protecting children in this way isessential in peace time, and is evenmore essential, as part of civil defense,in order to conserve our medical andhospital resources for use in time ofpossible war.(5) Contagious diseases follow war,so protect your family now.And so we have some very definiteadvice on immunization of our children,as a part of any well ordered programof civil defense. A parent who neglectsthe immimization of a helpless childagainst diseases which cripple and killmay not of necessity be a criminal, butsuch parent certainly is extremely negligent.