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60
Poliomyelitis
In 1963 no cases of poliomyelitis was notified-the third year
in succession.
Dysentery
The number of cases again showed a large increase over the previous
year. The focus for local outbreaks is often the schools and the mildness
of the type of dysentery conduces to spread as the child may go on
attending school for the first day or two when likely to be most infective.
The only real bar to the quick spread of the disease appears to be an
extremely high hygienic standard from the very start in connection
with all the apparatus of the water-closet and with hand washing;
and with immediate exclusion from school.
Measles
1963 was an endemic year, there being 2408 cases. They were of
mild degree, and no deaths were recorded.
Pneumonia
The number of cases was 42. The absence of any influenza outbreak
was probably responsible for this low number, although it is likely
that many cases of pneumonia are not formally notified.
Scarlet fever
The number of cases was 76 in 1963, an increase of 23 over those
of the previous year, the lowest recorded.
Whooping cough
After the record low number of 41 in 1962 the cases in 1963 rose
dramatically to 186. Whooping cough is a preventable disease, and
attention is once again called to the desirability of young children
being protected by immunisation, as whooping cough is in general
the more serious the younger the child is. Whooping cough immunisation
can be combined with diphtheria immunisation, thus reducing
the number of injections the young child requires.
Tuberculosis
After the dramatic fall in 1959 the number of cases continued to
fall until 1962 when they reached a record low of 103. In 1963 however,
the number rose to 122, but was still slightly lower than that of 1961
(123). 108 of these were pulmonary. As in previous years there were
many more cases in males than in females as far as respiratory tuberculosis
was concerned, there being 78 males and 30 females. The number
of females was in fact 2 less than in 1962, and the increase in total
number of respiratory cases was therefore accounted for by the increase
in the number of male cases from 51 in 1962 to 78 in 1963. The largest
male increases over 1962 occurred in the age groups 15-20 (an increase
of 10 cases) and in the age group 55-65 (an increase of 10 cases).