Diptheria vaccinations at East Brisbane State School in 1940

(Courier Mail, 6 March 1940)

The photo shows a young schoolboy being vaccinated for diptheria at the East Brisbane State School in 1940. He was one of 150 children immunised by the City Medical Officer of Health, Dr. R. Weaver. ( Courier Mail, 6 March 1940).

At the height of the 1921 diptheria epidemic, there were 23,199 notifications (annual notification rate of 4.265 per 100,000 population, and in the decade between 1926 and 1935 there were 4,043 deaths from diptheria. (www1.health.gov)

School-based diptheria vaccination programs began in Australia in the early 1930s. Routine childhood vaccination virtually eliminated diptheria in most industrialised countries.