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It will be seen from these figures that, with the exception of
the year 1942, the war years were free from poliomyelitis. On
the other hand, no year since the war has been free; and in
three post-war years (1947-49 and 1950) the number of cases
notified annually has been large enough to justify the prevalence
being regarded as exceptional.
Cases Notified in 1950.
The first case was notified on 25th June, and by the end of
August 10 cases had been notified in Leyton.
Towards the end of June the Chief Medical Officer of the
Ministry of Health circulated to all Medical Officers of Health
throughout the country a letter in which he suggested that, in
any locality in which poliomyelitis is becoming exceptionally
prevalent, it would be prudent to suspend for the time being the
use of diphtheria antigens as well as of those containing pertussis
vaccine.
On 11th August I circulated to local general medical practitioners
a letter giving information regarding the cases, of whom
three children attended different classes in the same school (infants'
department). Other than that, no common source of infection
was established between any two notified cases; and no affected
child had been immunised against diphtheria or whooping cough
within a year of the onset of the poliomyelitis.
As the incidence of cases at that time could be regarded as
evidence that the disease was more than usually prevalent in this
area, I conferred with the County Medical Officer, who agreed
that the County Council's Scheme for the immunisation of young
children against diphtheria should be discontinued for two months.
Local doctors were informed that during that period no Local