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54
It should be noted that the figures headed
"Notifications" do not accurately represent the number
of cases, as no doubt they include a proportion of cases
mistakenly diagnosed as clinical Diphtheria, undue
reliance being placed upon a positive bacteriological
report as a basis for notification.
Anti-diphtheritic serum is stocked at the Town
Hall and supplied free on the order of a doctor;
36,000 units were supplied during the year.
Scarlet Fever.
There were 610 cases of scarlet fever notified
during the year, 607 of the patients being removed
to an isolation hospital.
The relative mildness of the disease in recent
years indirectly leads to the spread of the disease,
through many "missed" cases of an ambulatory type
living amongst the general population.
No use has been made in the Borough, so far as I
am aware, either of the Dick test for the purpose of
diagnosis or of serum for immunisation or therapeutic
purposes.
Four deaths were returned by the Registrar
General as due to scarlet fever during the year, equal
to a death rate of 0.03 per 1,000 population.