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11
SECTION B
PREVALENCE OF AND CONTROL OVER
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Infectious Disease.
There were, omitting tuberculosis, 2,339 cases of infectious
disease notified in the Borough during the year. 261 cases were
removed to isolation hospitals. Of this number, however, 84
were subsequently returned home as they were found not to be
suffering from the disease suspected. Thus the corrected number
of cases of infectious disease for the year was 2,255. Although
this total shows a reduction of 284 as compared with the previous
year, the measles epidemic again accounted for an unusually
large proportion of the cases, i.e., 1,502.
Twenty-four cases of diphtheria were notified but not one
case was confirmed, and I have very much pleasure in recording
that no death from this disease has occurred in the Borough
during the past eight years. This is a record for the present
century, if not for any previous similar period during which
diphtheria has been recognised as a separate disease. During
recent years great strides have been made in protecting children
against diphtheria, and this service, free of charge, is carried out
by the Local Health Authority at clinics which are held regularly
at the infant welfare centres. It is now possible by vaccination
and inoculation to safeguard an individual against various
infectious diseases, and the number of these continue to increase
with the inevitable progress of preventive medicine.
To assist correct diagnosis the Council has made arrangements
for the examination of specimens from patients sent in
by doctors in doubtful or suspicious cases of diphtheria, typhoid
fever, tuberculosis, etc. This service is carried out at the West
London Hospital and is referred to later in the report.
Contacts and Carriers of Infectious Disease—Sickness
Benefit
Ministry of Health circular 115/48 empowers the Medical
Officer of Health, where justified, to issue certificates to persons
who have been in contact with or who are carriers of an infectious
disease, thus enabling them to claim sickness benefit under the
National Insurance Acts during the period of exclusion from
their work.
Certificates were issued by the Medical Officer of Health
during the year to two persons engaged in the food trade who
had been in contact with cases of scarlet fever,