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16
Infectious and Other Diseases.
There was a large decrease in the number of notifications received
during 1954. Notifications received numbered 648, as compared with
1,612 in 1953, a decrease of 964, and an average of 1982 for the preceding
5 years (1949/53).
The decrease was due mainly to a drop in the number of measles
and whooping cough notifications, the incidence of measles and whooping
cough declining from 762 and 410 in 1953, to 192 and 116 in
1954, respectively.
There were fewer notifications of scarlet fever, acute primary and
acute influenzal pneumonia, also pulmonary tuberculosis, but there was
a slight increase in food poisoning notifications, there being 14 in the
year under review compared with 4 in 1953,
There were no cases of diphtheria.
Five cases of polio-myelitis were notified, but in one of these
cases the diagnosis was not confirmed, leaving 4 confirmed cases
(1 paralytic and 3 non-paralytic).
In addition to the above, there was one fatal un-notified case,
occurring in a child aged 2 years, who died within a few hours of being
admitted to hospital. It was only after extensive pathological investigation
that it was established that polio-myelitis was the cause of
this death.

Diphtheria and Whooping Cough Immunisation,
Smallpox Vaccination.
Diphtheria and whooping cough immunisation and vaccination
against smallpox were carried out throughout the year under the control
of the London County Council.