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62
Pneumonia
The number of cases increased considerably, from 61 to 108, and
this was associated with the influenzal wave of moderate intensity at
the beginning of the year. Over half the notifications occurred in the
South division, but with this disease again it is probable that notifications
are incomplete.
Scarlet fever
The cases again increased, this time from 210 to 303. They were
scattered throughout the borough and apart from one school in which
some 36 cases were associated either in the schoolchildren or their home
contacts, no special cause of spread came to light.
Whooping cough
The cases increased a little from the very low figure of the previous
year but were still much below the figures for the earlier post-war years
—reflecting probably the higher number of children being inoculated
against the disease.
Tuberculosis
After the rather disappointing plateau of notifications of the past
years the figure for 1959 came down quite dramatically. In the case
of males it was reduced from 137 to 73—almost half, and in the case of
females from 79 to 51. The number of deaths again showed a considerable
drop*— from 13 to 11 for males and from 6 to 1 for females. These
were both the lowest figures on record, and perhaps it is right to pause
for a moment at the figure of one death for females in a year from pulmonary
tuberculosis in a population of 220,000 and compare it with
a mere ten years ago when in an almost similar population there were
42 deaths in females, and with 30 years ago when, although the population
was a little smaller, there were 82 such deaths.