Major GUINNESSasked the Under-Secretary of State for War whether he is aware that when inoculating troops against typhoid and cholera certain officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps do not sterilise their hypodermic needles between individual inoculations, relying solely on the sterilisation of the skin, which incurs the risk of local or general septic infection; whether he is aware that there is an objection on the part of troops to be inoculated under such conditions; and whether he will issue a general order to all medical officers concerned in the Expeditionary as well as the Home forces defining the sterilisation methods which ought to be adopted?
§ Mr. TENNANTI am not aware that certain officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps do not sterilise their hypodermic needles between individual inoculations. Instructions have been and are now issued with all consignments of anti-typhoid vaccine emphasising the importance of sterilising the needle after each injection. This is understood to be a routine practice with all injections. If there is evidence that these instructions are in some instances not being followed, all Commands will be informed.