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Acute Poliomyelitis.
In recent years cases of this disease have become more
frequent in the British Isles causing great anxiety among the
public. Fortunately, the risk of contracting poliomyelitis in its
paralytic form is far less than people imagine. Infection is
mainly spread, from person to person. In the earlier epidemics
young children were the chief sufferers but of late years a higher
proportion of reported cases has occurred in children of school
age and the adolescent and adult population.
For practical purposes cases are classified as non-paralytic
and paralytic. Non-paralytic cases are those which show signs
of inflammation of the central nervous system without any
muscle weakness. Several immunologically distinct types of
the virus which causes poliomyelitis have been identified. None
of the newly discovered antibiotics have any influence on the
virus nor does convalescent serum give protection against
poliomyelitis or against paralysis in a case in the pre-paralytic
stage.
The first serious outbreak of this disease occurred in 1947
to be followed by lesser outbreaks in 1949 and 1950. The
graph on page 41 shows the annual incidence of cases and deaths
from this disease from 1921 to 1951.
Meningococcal Infection.
From the 1st January, 1950, all meningococcal infections
are required to be notified as a single entity. Susceptibility to
the clinical disease is slight although there may be a high carrier
prevalence. The use of chemotherapeutic or antibiotic agents
have been extremely useful in lowering the carrier rate and
limiting the spread of the disease, (see graph page 42.)
Measles.
The reason why measles is now such a mild disease is not
definitely known. It may be that improved social factors have
influenced the mortality, but not the morbidity. Although
chemoprophylaxis prevents certain serious complications of
measles, nevertheless, the routine administration of chemoprophylactics to children with this complaint is not recommended.
With a disease so mild, and active immunisation still
in the experimental stage, the concensus of opinion is for passive
immunisation to be reserved for those who are subject to special
risks, such as weakly or sick children under two years of age and
children in institutions and hospitals, (see graph page 43.)