§ Dr. Vaughanasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he is satisfied with the steps being taken to prevent the spread of infection following the recent cases of smallpox in London; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Sir K. JosephYes. There have been three cases of smallpox in the current episode, the first being a woman laboratory technician, aged 23, who was admitted to the Harrow Road branch of St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington, on 16th March. When smallpox was suspected on 23rd March she was transferred to Long Reach Smallpox Hospital but in the intervening period a man and his wife, who were visiting another patient in the same ward, became infected and were admitted to an infectious diseases hospital on 2nd April and transferred to Long Reach on 4th April. The wife has since died. There is evidence that the original source of infection lay in a laboratory next to that in which the woman technician worked.
Steps were taken at once to vaccinate and place under surveillance all known contacts. Final laboratory confirmation of smallpox was received on 31st March but in the meanwhile my Chief Medical Officer had written on 29th March to all medical officers of health.
My Chief Medical Officer has also written to directors of departments of mircrobiology in universities, teaching hospitals and research laboratories to ask whether any of their laboratories are handling smallpox virus and, if so, to ensure that the fullest precautions are being taken to protect laboratory staff and to guard against the possibility of spread of live virus from the working area. He has also arranged for a group of experts to meet and, in the light of the recent incident, to consider whether some agreed code of practice or other measures would be desirable.
The arrangements for supply, storage and distribution of smallpox vaccine were reviewed as recently as December 1972 and I am satisfied, on advice, that these arrangements, which include the 365W maintenance of a special reserve of vaccine, are adequate to meet all reasonable demands.
Travellers leaving London over the Easter holiday period for visits abroad may be required to produce valid international certificates of vaccination on entry to another country. Some countries may require travellers from any part of the United Kingdom to produce such certificates. If no further case of smallpox occurs among those who have been in contact with the disease London will be declared free from infection on 2nd May.
No large-scale vaccination in the general community is needed, either in London or in any other part of England.