Abstract
A STRIKING instance of the protection against smallpox afforded by vaccination is given in the annual report for 1936 of the All-India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, Calcutta, recently published. During the smallpox epidemic that occurred in the first quarter of 1936, there were 604 infants and children less than five years of age on the roll of the Maternity and Child Welfare Section of the Institute. Of these children, 434 were vaccinated before or during the epidemic, and 170 were not vaccinated. Of the unvaccinated, 42 developed the disease, a case incidence of 24.7 percent, of whom 17 died, a mortality of 10 percent for the group, or of 38.5 percent of the cases. In the vaccinated group, 10 developed the disease in less than a week after vaccination and before protection had developed, of whom 7 died. Excluding these cases, of the remaining 424 vaccinated efficiently, only 3 contracted the disease and all recovered, an incidence of 0–7 percent with mortality nil.
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Smallpox Vaccination in an Indian Epidemic. Nature 142, 507 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142507c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142507c0