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Erysipelas
No cases of this infectious skin disease were notified. Although the
prevalence of this infection has steadily declined in recent years, this is the
first in which there were no reported cases. As with scarlet fever the
infecting organism is a streptococcus which is particularly vulnerable to the
new therapeutic agents, such as penicillin and this fact undoubtedly is in a
large measure responsible for the decline in notifications. No doubt many
cases, when they present early signs of infection of the skin, are subjected
to prompt anti-biotic treatment which, by rapidly subduing the organism,
aborts the attack and prevents the development of the typical clinical picture.
Pneumonia
Except when it results from influenza, pneumonia is only notifiable
as a primary condition there being no statutory requirement to notify this
illness when it is secondary to some other infection such as measles, whooping
cough, etc.
Thirty-six notifications were received of which half were stated to be
influenzal. Two thirds occurred in the last quarter of the year.
Measles
Following a year of low prevalence, the expected increase in the
incidence of measles materialized in 1957. This is in accord with the long
experienced biennial periodicity of this infection in the London area. The
total of notifications received was 684 compared with 326 in 1956. It began
to assume epidemic proportions early in January, reached a peak in
March/April and subsided by the end of May. More than 600 of the 684
cases occurred during these first five months of the year. There were no
deaths.