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pretended to claim that full protection can be guaranteed. Our
only claim has been that many children inoculated against pertussis
will remain fully protected for several years, at least until
pertussis ceases to be a killing or even a dangerous disease; and
that the remaining children inoculated, if they develop the disease,
will only do so in a mild form. When the percentage of
children in the Borough inoculated against pertussis is as high
as that protected against diphtheria, the results of inoculation
will become increasingly apparent, Until that time arrives, there
is evidence that our present policy is correct. We are endeavouring
to persuade mothers to have their children inoculated against
pertussis at or about the second month of life. As pertussis
remains one of the major fatal diseases of infancy during the
first six months of a child's life, early inoculation will, we
believe, tide the child over that dangerous period. Thereafter,,
as I have already pointed out, the danger progressively diminishes,
Food Poisoning (including Sonne Dysentery)
Eighteen cases of food poisoning and 76 cases of dysentery
were reported in 1956 as against totals of 27 and 34 respectively
during the previous year, I must again state that these figures
are only useful for purposes of comparison, as we know perfectly
well that many cases of food poisoning and dysentery are never
brought to our notice, or even to the notice of general practitioners.
The scheme set out in my Annual Report for 1954 relating
to the exclusion from school of cases of diarrhoea, with or without
sickness, continues to work satisfactorily It would be too
soon yet to state categorically that this scheme has reduced the
incidence of dysentery among school children, but we certainly do
know that it has eased the work of our already overburdened Public
Health Inspectors, without appearing in any way to have increased
the number of cases in our schools,
It is also interesting to note that the hygienic precautions
to which I referred when dealing with the spread of poliomyelitis
in schools apply equally to the spread of dysentery and that more
recent bug-bear, winter vomiting, All our schools are visited as
soon as we receive information that multiple cases of dysentery
or winter vomiting have occurred In this connection, I would take
this opportunity of thanking our head teachers for their prompt,
invaluable co-operation. We are in this way enabled to take immediate
action, In the spread of infectious diseases, immediate
action may save endless trouble at a later date. This fact is
particularly evident in the case of intestinal infections,
Para-typhoid Fever
One case of para-typhoid fever was notified in 1956 compared
with two cases in 1955, The difficulty recorded in my Annual
Report for 1955 relating to infected egg products has therefore
not recurred, although we are constantly on our guard against the
occurrence of cases which can be ascribed to this or to a similar
source.
Puerperal Pyrexia
Two cases of puerperal pyrexia were notified during the year.
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