Smallpox in Wales, 1962, part 8 of 11
The two photographs above show Welsh people lining up for Vaccination during the outbreak.
In total, 46 people contracted smallpox during the Welsh outbreak and 19 of those infected died of the disease. Mass vaccination effectively halted further spread of the virus, ending the outbreak in April.
The following is a letter from the the Welsh Board of Health calling for mass vaccination. It dates to March 1st, 1962.
The text of the image is typed out below.
“The ministry’s policy on the occurrence of smallpox is that persons known to have been in contact with the sufferer should be offered vaccination and kept under surveillance but that the vaccination should not be offered freely to all comers although a demand of that kind is known to arise in every case where the disease appears. On advice from Dr. Culley the Medical Officers of Health for Rhondda and Llantrisant maintained this attitude at first on this occasion. Contacts were known to be numerous comprising mostly of people who ahd visited clubs and a public house at which Mr. Hodkinson had called. But the number of people presenting themselves at the clinics used in these districts for the vaccination of contacts outran all possibilities and checks had to be instituted.
On the occurrence of the further Trealaw cases yesterday, with no known link with any earlier cases, it seemed that the spread of the disease had got out of hand and in the face of this Dr. Culley received instructions from Dr. Godber, Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health to offer no further opposition to mass vaccination. It was ascertained that supplies of vaccine at the Public Health Laboratory, Cardiff, were adequate for all probable demands and steps were taken to augment them. Seven clinics are no at work and hundreds of people, if not thousands, have already been vaccinated.”
this 11 part series will be shown in full here
