From the archives: No diphtheria deaths for five weeks, 26 July, 1944

For the past five weeks, not a single person has died of diphtheria in Scotland.

This is a record, and marks a triumphant milestone in a campaign begun by the Department of Health for Scotland in 1941 to combat the disease. Immunisation of 60 per cent of Scotland’s child population is responsible for this respite in the view of the Department, and also for a 
noticeable drop in the number of cases of diphtheria notified. It is an indication of what might be expected from the 85 per cent immunisation for which the Department has been striving for the past three years. It also stresses the need to bring within this protection the 400,000 children who are at this moment facing the critical winter months without being safeguarded. Private doctors and health clinics are those most actively engaged in immunisation in Scotland.

• archive.scotsman.com