The Republican., 1933-10-26
INOCULATION IMPORTANT
IN PREVENTING DISEASES
Immunity From Smallpox and
Diphtheria is Gained This Way

Of the various inoculations which
have been devised for prevention of
diseases, two stand out as being of
real Importance for every child, ac-
cording to DR.. Eugene C. Peck, county
health officer.
Vaccination against smallpox has
been known since 1897, and its power
to eliminate the disease from the gen.
eral population which formerly was
visited by repeated epidemics of this
scourge, has been amply proved. The
State law in Maryland requires that
parent shall have every child vacci-
mated before it is a year old, and that
guardians and others having children
in their care must see that those chill
dren are vaccinated before November
of each year. School teachers are re-
quired by law to exclude all unvacci-
mated children from the schools. This
law keeps our State free of epidemics
of this disease, so that few people rea-
lie its benefits.
Vaccination which is repeated in five
years or less gives only very slight
reaction as compared with the primary
vaccination. This modified reaction
shows that some immunity still re-
mains in the body from the first vacci-
vaccination and this immunity is re-
stored again to it's full power by the
repeated vaccination.
The other incubation which is ad-
visable for all children is the preven-
tive incubation against diphtheria.
The most modern way of doing this is
the use of a preparation of diphtheria
toxoid which has been on the market
for less than three years. The use of
a single dose of this toXoid makes
most of the children so treated i'm
mune to diphtheria. The immunity
probably lasts for several years.
We are able to test the immunity
in children without waiting for eX-
posure of the child to diphtheria in an
epidemic, because for 20 years doctors
have had the use of the Schick test,
by which a very small injection into
the superficial layers of the skin shows
whether or not the child is liable to
take the disease if exposed.
Most of tn deaths from diphtheira
in this country are in children below
the school age. 1t is in infants the
disease is hardest for a doctor to de-
tect, and here that it takes its most
severe form. Every baby should be
given the benefit of preventive inocu-
lation against diphtheria at about six
months of age, so the immunity, which
takes two months to develop, will be
present during the age from one to
five, in which most deaths from diph-
liberia occur.
At present the Health Department
is giving inoculations to school chill
dren when requested by the parents,
because facilities for such inoculations
have been so scanty. The little chill
dren have not had this privilege
offered them. In future years such
inoculation of school children will be
unnecessary, because any child reach
ing school age without proper inocu-
lation will be considered evidence of
neglect on the part of the parents.
The State Health Department
furnishes free for physicians use the
vaccine and toxoid necessary to protect
children against these two diseases,
and it is hoped that parents will have
their private physicians take care of
this work in caring for the health of
their children. Clinics for poor chill
dren will be necessary for years to
come