§ Mr. GROVESasked the Minister of Health if he will make inquiries as to why no mention of vaccination was made on the death certificate of the young man of 19, whose name has been privately given to his Department, who recently died from acute anterior polio-myelitis 14 days after vaccination?
§ Mr. NEVILLE CHAMBERLAINThe certification of the cause of death is a matter which rests entirely with the medical practitioner in attendance. Inquiries have, however, been made into the circumstances associated with the death in question, and I am informed that vaccination was not entered on the death certificate because in the opinion of the certifying practitioner vaccination was not a primary, secondary, or contributory cause of death.
§ Mr. LANSBURYasked the Minister of Health whether the two small-pox patients who were removed to the Willesden Isolation Hospital from a nursing home in Brondesbury, on or about 29th October last, had been vaccinated; how long these patients were under medical treatment in London before it was discovered that they were suffering from small-pox; whether it is now possible to say where these persons came from on their arrival in London; and what steps have been taken to trace the origin of the disease?
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§ Sir K. WOODMy right hon. Friend is informed that both these patients had been vaccinated; the interval between vaccination and attack by small-pox was approximately 26 years in one instance, and 44 years in the other. In one instance the patient. was under medical treatment for 19 days, and in the other for four nays, before a diagnosis of small-pox was made. Both persons had been staying in Paris before their arrival in London, and the first case was presumably infected in France, while the second case was a contact with the first.
§ Mr. LANSBURYasked the Minister of Health whether the vaccination of the young man of 19 who recently died about 14 days after vaccination, and whose name has been given privately to him in a letter, dated the 19th November, from Mr. Arnold Lupton, was performed with Government lymph?
§ Sir K. WOODNo, Sir.