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immunised is likely to be far greater than the danger of paralysis following
injection. As was indicated earlier in this section, a calamity such as
paralysis following an injection is news, but the absence of seven or eight
deaths from diphtheria is not news because "it never happened." It is
right that the information should be made known, but the method of
presentation and the interpretations placed on the known facts have in
some cases been unfortunate and have caused unnecessary alarm and
unnecessary harm to the immunisation service.
The notifications of Scarlet Fever were approximately half those of the
previous year. The character of this disease has changed very considerably.
At the beginning of the century the fever hospitals were provided primarily
for the isolation and treatment of scarlet fever which was a deadly disease.
Nowdays, scarlet fever is a mild complaint with a case mortality below
that of any of the other notifiable infectious diseases, the general
appearance of a case has changed considerably and it not infrequently
happens that cases are not diagnosed until the patients are almost
recovered. Treatment with the sulphonamides and penicillin is very
effective and complications which 50 years ago were both common and
dangerous are now very rare. Uncomplicated cases are now not normally
accepted into hospital unless the home circumstances make it necessary.
Twelve cases of Poliomyelitis were notified and the diagnosis was
confirmed in nine cases. Of these eight showed some paralysis and one
had no paralysis. This would appear to indicate that a number of cases
without paralysis were not diagnosed and it may be that the symptoms
were so slight in some patients that medical advice was not sought.
No deaths occurred in any of these cases but one case in addition to the
above, occurred when the patient was away on holiday, and in this case
the patient died. The notification of the disease was made in the area in
which the patient was staying but the death was transferred to the home
area for record purposes.
The disease was most prevalent in Deptford during July and August,
five out of the nine cases being notified between 14th July and 18th August.
This was approximately the period of greatest incidence throughout the
country.
One case of Encephalitis (Infectious) was notified during the year.
There were 885 cases of Measles notified during 1950. Approximately
three-quarters of these occurred during the last quarter of the year, and
half the cases occurred in children between 2 and 5 years of age. Two
infants who were suffering from whooping cough and who had in addition
been exposed to measles infection were given prophylactic injections with
satisfactory results, and several cases were given similar treatment by their
own medical attendants. As the prophylactic material is in short supply
and is expensive and as the more usual complications generally respond to