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PREVALENCE AND CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Provisions governing the notification by medical practitioners to the Medical
Officer of Health of infectious disease and food poisoning are to be found in Part V
of the Public Health Act, 1936, Sections 47 to 49 of the Health Services and Public
Health Act, 1968, and the Public Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations, 1968.
The most prevalent disease during the year was again measles, which made up
just over 78% of the 1,969 notifications received; 1,536 cases were notified compared
with 334 last year.
Fifty-six cases of respiratory tuberculosis and eleven cases of tuberculosis of
other organs, including genito-urinary tract, lymph glands and meninges, were
notified — figures very similar to those for the previous year. There were eight deaths
from the disease.
Of all notified cases of infectious disease 710 (36%) were school children, and
head teachers informed us of 490 children reputed to be absent from school due to
infectious or suspected infectious disease. A number of the cases reported by head
teachers were pupils suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting.
Dysentery
One hundred and sixteen cases of sonne dysentery were notified, and the attack
rate was 0-44 per thousand of the population. There were no deaths.
Encephalitis (Acute)
One case of acute encephalitis was notified. There were no deaths.
Food Poisoning
Twelve cases of food poisoning were notified, and the attack rate was 0"05 per
thousand of the population. All notifications were single sporadic cases.
The causative organism was salmonella typhi-murium in five cases, other
salmonellae in two cases, and in the remaining five cases the cause was unknown.
There were no deaths.
Infective Jaundice
Sixty-four cases were notified, of which only one was a case of serum hepatitis.
Of the remaining 63 cases of infective hepatitis contact with a known case was
established in eight instances, while six of the remaining cases were known to have
consumed shellfish.
As infective jaundice only became notifiable on the 15th June, 1968, for analytical
purposes the total number of notifications since then are shown in the following
table. Although the numbers are relatively small they show that the disease is one
affecting mainly comparatively young persons and suggest a significant difference in
incidence between the sexes in the age groups 20-39 years.
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