View report page

Prevalence of and Control over
Infectious and Other Diseases.
From Table V, on page 87, it will be seen that 199 oases of
infectious disease were notified during the year, as against 270 in
1935 and 332 in 1934, a decrease of 71 from the previous year and
no less than 133 from the total of two years ago. These 199 cases
represent infection in 189 houses. It will thus be realised that the
number of cases of infectious disease Notified during 193& has once
again shown a substantial decrease. Indeed, not since 1927 has the
total number of cases of infectious disease notified during any one
year been less than 200. When it is remembered that the population
of Southgate was approximately 43,000 during that particular
year, the significance of this fact will become apparent.
The remarks which I made in last year's Annual Report
regarding the necessity for consolidating our present happy position
with regard to infectious disease, still carry the same force.
We can scarcely expect to continue in such a favourable position,
which actually contains a potential element of danger. Our child
population is obviously growing up in an extremely sheltered
environment. The opportunities which they possess of exercising
their powers of natural immunity are thereby greatly curtailed,
and we must therefore do everything in our power to stimulate a
state of artificial immunity while the present inter-epidemic period
persists. This particularly applies to diphtheria, which has been
almost absent from the Borough during the past year. The means
of protection are to our hand. To withhold those powers or even to
adopt a non-committal, neutral attitude would be nothing short of
criminal folly.

It will be observed that the figures for the South and NorthEast
Wards have shown a marked diminution, while the figures for
the Middle and North-West Wards were, by a strange coincidence,
exactly the same as those for the previous year. The fall in the
63