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48
tioners. If any case on the school return is found to be unnotified,
investigations are made in order to find out if the patient is receiving
medical attention.
The school notices also give a fairly accurate estimate of the
prevalence of non-notifiable infectious diseases, such as chicken-pox,
measles, mumps, etc. The numbers so notified are reported on
under the various diseases mentioned later in this report.
Small Pox.
No case of small pox occurred in the district during the year.
Twenty-five cases occurred in neighbouring districts, and in connection
with these observations were kept on six contacts living in
this area.
Scarlet Fever.
The number of cases notified during the year was 240, this
being 66 more than last year. Two hundred and twenty-one cases
were removed to hospital. One death was registered from this
disease during the year.
One hundred and thirty-eight cases occurred in children of
school age, i.e., between five years and 15 years of age, and 73 cases
occurred in children under school age. In 49 cases of children under
school age there were other members of the family attending school
and 26 of these cases were directly infected from the school child. In
24 cases of children under school age there were no members of the
family attending school; in 12 of these cases the child was infected
from a parent or adult brother or sister. In the remaining cases the
source of infection could not be found.
Diphtheria.
Forty cases of diphtheria were notified during the year.
Forty cases were removed to hospital.
No deaths were registered from this disease.
Arrangements have been made by the Council for the
examination, free of charge, of swabs taken from suspected cases of
diphtheria, and during the year 239 such examinations have been
made. Anti-toxin is also issued free of charge to practitioners who
may require it.