'Operation BCG'
p. 41 · Read in the full issue
Fast Work by Air Companies Makes N. Guinea Anti-TB Work Possible
MEDICAL history is believed to be in the making in the Central New Guinea Highlands where large scale anti-TB vaccination is being carried out with the new drug BCG.
A doctor and two assistants are doing the job which entails dealing with up to 1,000 patients per day. Men, women and children are being vaccinated but the measure is designed, mainly, for the pro tection of those Highlands men who are going to the coastal areas for the first time as indentured labourers.
P l ast work by air transportation com panies is necessary in order that the Highlands anti-TB campaign can be undertaken at all.
BCG vaccine has a life of only eight days. It is made by the Commonwealth serum laboratories in Melbourne, leaves that city in the small hours each Friday, picks up the New Guinea plane in Sydney and arrives in the NG Highlands late on Saturday afternoon. The medical team then has a week to get rid of it before its useful life is over.