VACCINATION FOR SHIP PASSENGERS

To the Editor:—  The United States Public Health Service since April 1947 has required every passenger entering this country (except from the immediate Western Hemisphere) to present to the Port Health Medical Officer, at the port of entry, a valid vaccination certificate. Such certificate must show a definite result, indicative of successful vaccination not more than three years previously.It is apparent that many physicians are unaware of this requirement, as a continuing number of passengers are found with certificates that do not state the result. When informed that these are useless, such passengers adversely criticize the physician, and, when the United States Quarantine physician insists on revaccination, this irritation often grows to resentment.Promulgation of this admittedly natural reaction, through such a medium as The Journal, would, I am convinced, do much to minimize or obviate a potential source of bad feeling between patient and physician.