Show Polio Vaccination LARGELY ABSTRACTED FROM COMMUNICATIONS FROM WITHIN THE FIVE some 93 million persons have used the Salk vaccine and 78 million of them are now fully This is a monumental achievement In preventive There is no parallel to this in medical these five years there have not only been many improvements in the non-living- but a marked increase in potency has been It is now-evident that an oral attenuated vaccine will take its place along with Salk vaccine as an additional weapon for the control of IN TIDE IMMEDIATE before the oral vaccines become what should the program The answer Is Salk-type vaccines are now available and arc of proved They should be used No one who lias not yet been immunized should wait for the oral Anyone who is only partially immunized should be urged to complete his including the fourth or booster We have in the Salk a preventative for poliomyelitis with an established efficacy of between 90 to 95 percent when the full course is There is no basis for THE DISEASE HAS continued to occur in repetitive This pattern is predominantly of lower socioeconomic pre-school often in crowded urban but in all cases reflecting the distribution of the residual Surveys of immunization status continue to reveal significant proportions of the population inadequately IMMUNIZATION AGAINST protects the individual against the disease-producing effects of but in no way interferes with normal circulation of the virus in a This is in sharp contrast to certain other communicable disease such as small in which a high percentage of immune persons blocks transmission and prevents in the case of poliomyelitis the only sure protection immunization for which must be our THE PEAK INCIDENCE of paralytic poliomyelitis is now falling within the year age It Is obvious the immunization program must reach a high proportion of To reach them will require well-planned community Individual records based on the birth certificate with appropriate follow-up work will be THE RATES FOR PARALYTIC cases for 1958 were highest in and more than half of all paralytic cases occurred in children under 5 years of Despite the high susceptibility of the nation's pre-school they have not been fully IF WE HAVE NEGLECTED maybe we have whooping cough and This then is a good time to check up on our total immunization PRESENT POSITION as physicians and health officers can be easily summed It is clearly and unmistakably our To press for routine immunization of infants and the very To achieve protection of all socio-economic and age in many areas the disease attacks lower socio-economic groups there are no and it often is exactly the person best protected environmentally who suffers the most-devastating i To plan now for the advent of the new polio vaccine and be ready to use it when it ORAL POLIO vaccine will not be available for general use In time for the next polio wait for Clinics in Duchesne County are held this See your |