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useful work during this period in tracing contacts and keeping a
watch on the houses from which contacts had been reported.
The occurrence of definite contacts of a disease such as
smallpox requires urgent and immediate attention. Nothing can be
left to chance.no gaps must be left in our defences. Fortunately,
as I have already stated - and this was very largely due to the
excellent way in which the limited outbreak in Tottenham was
handled - the smallpox interlude passed without incident. During
this period we persuaded 79 persons, either definite contacts or
members of households in which contacts were living, to be
vaccinated.
The incidence of the Tottenham smallpox cases shows all too
clearly that the risk of smallpox is still with us. When one
remembers that the state of vaccination in Great Britain as a
whole is anything but satisfactory, the danger will be more clearly
appreciated.
It is not so many years ago that the percentage of infants
being vaccinated in Word Green was less than 10. By the end of
1955, we knew that over 54% of Wood Green children reaching the
age of 2 years were protected against smallpox by vaccination.
By the end of 1957 this figure had risen to the level of 65%.
This is, of course, almost entirely due to the constant advice
given to parents attending our clinics hy our Assistant Medical
Officers and Health Visitors, who by their efforts and by their
persuasion have encouraged mothers to take the fullest advantage
of the vaccination facilities now provided at all our clinics.
Tuberculosis
Forty-seven cases of tuberculosis (40 pulmonary and 7 nonpulmonaiy)
were notified during the year, as against 63 in 1956.
Of the 47 cases, 22 were transferred fronf other districts, 25 being
new cases.