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cent is the only portion of the decline which the vaccine could lay claim to because it simply wasn't around for the first 99.5 per cent of it. How much claim can it lay to this last little bit? We will see in chapter three [see Greg Beattie's e-book; Ed.]. Measles vaccine was introduced in 1968 and added to the childhood schedule in 1971.‘ Most of the other vaccines went through a period of gradual introduction. Diphtheria—Australia —*Croup *** Diphtheria Combined 306 250 DTP licensed Start of mass =] vaccination Eanier © 200 7] 3 vaccine r* 150 in use = 100 50 BER & ¢ Diphtheria BS B Diphtheria vaccine, although © 2011 Greg Bea! introduced in the late 1920s, did not peg op te come into widespread use until the and Commonwealth late 1930s at the earliest, and some say it was not until 1953 when the DTP vaccine was licensed. The reason for this was an event in January 1928, which came to be known as the "Bundaberg tragedy",’ from which the country was slow to recover. In the 60 years prior to using the vaccine, the death rate declined by over 80 per cent. © 2011 Greg Beattie Sources: Data published by Commonwealth of Australia in The History of Diphtheria, Scarlel Fever, Measles, and Whooping Cough in Australia, 1788-1925 (Cumpston, 1927) and Commonwealth Year Books, plus Australian Bureau of Statistics population data. twas not until with death rates of two illnesses, one "vaccine The reason for preventable" and one not, side by side for comparison. sh came to be ~=Measles is compared with scarlet fever. Both had om which the — similar death rates in the 1800s. Never a vaccine- years prior to preventable illness, scarlet fever had a death rate that by over 80 per declined just as efficiently as that of measles and did not return to previous levels. Similarly, | have selected yhtheria graph. yphoid fever to be compared with whooping cough, a nbined total of | vaccine-preventable illness. the early 1900s The comparison seems ludicrous. After all, none of The reason for he illnesses had a vaccine until right at the very end. ‘ere not always But just in case we thought measles or whooping cough 3 referred to as = may have made a last-minute dash and sprung back up 1's Fundamentals o the levels of 100 years ago had we not invented a rm croup was — vaccine, the other two are there to remind us that that ™ Prior to the — was unlikely. Typhoid fever and scarlet fever were once d croup were as great a problem as the other two; in fact, greater. were lumped _ They declined and became relatively insignificant just he same, and without a vaccine. Data for typhoid fever deaths from 1910 onward shows One is for croup and the other for the combined total of croup and diphtheria. There is a point in the early 1900s where only the combined line remains. The reason for these lines is that diphtheria and croup were not always differentiated. Diphtheria was sometimes referred to as membranous croup.’ According to Rudolph's Fundamentals of Pediatrics: "Early in the 1900s, the term croup was synonymous with laryngeal diphtheria."’ Prior to the early 1900s, figures for diphtheria and croup were recorded separately. After this, they were lumped together. ¢ Whooping Cough Next, to whooping cough. This was another vaccine introduced gradually from the 1940s. Its routine use in infants came with the licensure in 1953 of DTP vaccine (the diphtheria-tetanus—pertussis vaccine; pertussis is the medical name for whooping cough). As can be seen from the graph, there was roughly a 95 per cent reduction in mortality from the 1870s to 1953 prior to the DTP vaccine being licensed, and close to 90 per cent before earlier vaccines were used during the 1940s. DTP © 2011 Greg Beattie Sources: Data published by Commonwealth of Australia in The History of Diphtheria, Scarlel Fever, Measles, and Whooping Cough in Australia, 1788-1925 (Cumpston, 1927) and Commonwealth Year Books, plus Australian Bureau of Statistics population data. ¢ Other Illnesses | have decided to present graphs APRIL - MAY 2011 NEXUS ° 31 www.nexusmagazine.com