View report page

-40-
many people is that whilst it is still a very good thing for their
neighbours to have their children immunised, it does not matter so
much as it did about their own children, especially if this may cause
trouble or inconvenience. It cannot be stressed too strongly that
whilst there is a large number of children unprotected against
diphtheria there is a real danger, not merely of individual cases,but
of a serious outbreak of the disease.
In this connection, credit should be given to the officers of the
London County Council who are mainly responsible for immunisation and
who have increased the numbers of children immunised by approximately
10# over the numbers in the previous year.
The number of cases of Scarlet Fever was larger than for the
previous year, the majority of cases occurring in children of school
age. The disease is now a very mild complaint and its character has
entirely changed from the dangerous and often fatal type which was
prevalent at the beginning of this century. Moreover, treatment with
modern drugs is very effective and there was no indication that any
case was of a serious nature during 1952.
There were only two cases of Poliomyelitis during the year and
in neither case was there any paralysis.
The number of cases of other diseases notified is shown in Table
10, which follows, and requires no special comment.
The arrangement whereby any variation in the original diagnosis
is notified by the Hospital Authorities continued in operation during
the year, and Table 10 which gives details of cases notified has
again been prepared with a column showing the corrected figures for
each disease after taking into consideration the latest information
supplied by Hospitals.