§ Mr. Crouchasked the Minister of Health how successful the Government's campaign for the vaccination and immunisation of children against smallpox and poliomyelitis has been; how many children remain unvaccinated; and what evidence he has that vaccination and immunisation adversely affect children, possibly resulting in illness or death.
§ Mr. SnowThe percentages of children in England and Wales vaccinated against smallpox and poliomyelitis have recently increased as shown below, but need to be further increased in order to maintain protection against these diseases in the general community.
31.12.64 31.12.65 31.12.66 Percentage of children in their second year of life who have been vaccinated against poliomyelitis 60 65 68 Percentage of children in their second year of life who have been vaccinated against smallpox 32 33 38 No cumulative figure of children remaining unvaccinated is available, but out of about 860,000 babies born in 1965 about 278,000 had not been vaccinated against poliomyelitis and about 536,000 had not been vaccinated against smallpox by the end of 1966.
Adverse effects from poliomyelitis vaccine are very rare. Smallpox vaccine- 174W tion gives rise to ill-effects in a small proportion of children and there are occasional deaths. Full details are published each year in my right hon. Friend's Chief Medical Officer's Annual Report.