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excretors. 47 cases arose in connection with day nurseries and 7 in
connection with a school. 58 of these cases were removed to hospital.
Two nurseries, one of them twice, and one school were involved in outbreaks.
Gastro enteritis under 2
This is a notifiable disease in Finsbury, and each year notification
or other information has been received of a number of cases which
have, however, in the main been of a mild or moderate character though
more than half were treated in hospital. The disease can be said to
have lost entirely its former status of a serious and dreaded threat
to infancy,, Some of the cases at first diagnosed in this way have
been found to be dysentery or salmonella infections, but the aetiology
of most has been uncertain.
The number of cases has varied from 10 in 1951 to 31 in 1954 with
25 in 1955. In the last five years the only death was in 1953. Thus
the annual incidence may be taken as between 20 and 40 and the death
rate as less than 0 33 per thousand births in each case. These
figures contrast markedly with the large number of cases which used to
occur before the war for which no figures are available and with the
death rate of about 15 per thousand births in the period 1936-1940 and
even more strikingly with the death rate of 28 between 1901 to 1905,
which was more than the present infant mortality from all causes
Gastro enteritis (over 2 years) and Enteritis
A few cases of these types have come to the notice of the department
each year, sometimes for investigation as possible cases of
dysentery or of food poisoning and sometimes for other reasons.
Each case is fully investigated according to the circumstances In 1955
there were eleven such cases not dealt with in any other paragraph.
Rubella
Although not a notifiable disease each case coming to the knowledge
of the department was investigated with a view to the discovery
of any expectant mother in the first four months of pregnancy who had
not had the disease among the contacts.
One such case was discovered during a considerable outbreak in
1952 when 276 cases became known She was working in a nursery in
which cases were occurring and was excluded
11 cases in all became known in 1955.