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5
SECTION B
PREVALENCE OF AND CONTROL OVER
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
Infectious Diseases.
1,909 cases of infectious diseases were notified during the year.
252 cases were removed to hospital and of this number, 45 were
notified on discharge as not having suffered from the condition
originally notified. As a result the corrected number of cases of
notifiable infectious diseases for the year was 1,864.
These figures show an increase on the previous year of 776
cases. This is due to the fact that there was an epidemic of Measles
in the early part of the year, and there was also an increase in the
number of cases of Scarlet Fever, Dysentery and Food Poisoning.
Four cases of suspected Diphtheria were notified, only one of
which was confirmed.
Contacts and Carriers of Infectious Disease—Sickness Benefit.
One certificate was issued during the year in the following
circumstances :—
Female kitchenhand in a Canteen who was a carrier of a Food
Poisoning organism.
Tuberculosis.
I have to report a slight increase in the incidence of this
disease.
The number of new cases notified during the year was 143 as
against 128 in the previous year. These figures show an increase of
12 in pulmonary cases and 3 in non-pulmonary cases. The number
of deaths, however, was only 8 as against 15 in 1958.
In the Statistical Supplement will be found a chart showing the
number of new cases notified during the past 20 years.
The London County Council continued with the campaign for
B.C.G. inoculations among school-children and a total of 1,264
received these inoculations during the year.
Poliomyelitis.
Once again only two cases of this disease were notified during
the year, both being of the paralytic type.
The Ministry of Health reports that by the end of March, 1960,
nearly 13,200,000 people in Great Britain had received at least two
vaccinations against poliomyelitis; over 9,400,000 of them had
had the course of three injections. The estimated acceptance-rate
for children (1943-59 group) was 75.5% and for young adults
(1933-42) 48%.
Food Poisoning.
In 1958 there were 36 cases of Food Poisoning. This year the
number of cases increased to 318. 83 cases were treated in hospital
but fortunately there were no deaths.