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Unfortunately considerable delay usually occurs
between the. onset of the disease and receipt of notification
which diminishes the value of visitation. It is hoped that in
future the use of placental serun nay be of help in preventing
complications in soac of the younger children, but to be of
value the delay in calling in a Doctor will have to be reduced.
WHOOPING COUGH.
There were only 36 notifications of Whooping Cough by
Doctors under the Measles and Whooping Cough Notification Order
1940, these all being received in the first seven months of the
year, compared with 136 in 1941, which chiefly occurred in the
last quarter of that year. Of the 36 notifications 20 were in
children under 5 years and 2 in adults.
From the Public Elementary Schools came a total oi 13
notifications, 4 of which lived outside the District, In no
case were these children notified by Doctors, so it is probable
that the total number of cases in the District was about 50.
The Health Visitors paid 58 first visits and 7 revisits but as
the interval between the onset of the disease and the first
visit was about 3 weeks on the average the value of this
service was reduced usually to giving advice on convalescence.
Two cases were admitted to the Infectious Diseases
Hospital and nc deaths occurred from this disease locally
during 1942.
TEE CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS DTSEASE.
The well recognised methods which attempt to restrict
the outbreak and spread of infectious disease were continued
during 1942, and in particular efforts were made to follow up
the national campaign in favour of diphtheria immunisation
launched in 1941.
DIPHTHERIA IMMUNISATION.
It will be remembered that the Council first
established two clinics for diphtheria immunisation in 1937
97 children being treated that year and 50, 40 and 120 ir the
following 3 years. Three quarters of the children then treated
were children under 5 years of age. With the launching of the
National campaign supported by the Ministry of Health in 1941
free treatment was extended to the schools and during that year
920 children completed treatment at the clinics and 2,367 at the
schools visited by the Council's medical staff.
At the end of 1941 it was estimated that 19% of the
children in the District under 5 years of age and 60% of the
children between the ages of 5 and 15 yea.es had received the
full course of treatment.

The number who completed treatment at the clinics
during 1942 was only slightly less than in 1941 (via. 903
compared with 920). On the other hand, as might be expected,
the number who completed treatment at the Public Elementary
ana Secondary Schools was greatly reduced (546 compared with