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16
Prevalence and Control Over Infectious and
Other Diseases.
Apart from a small part of an epidemic of measles which extended
into 1946 the incidence of infectious disease was lower than the
previous year, which itself was exceptional. \ot only so, but the
mortality was light, as deaths from scarlet fever were 1, diphtheria
1, cerebro-spinal fever 7, measles 1, whooping cough 4 and typhoid
fever 0. Sixty years ago in Lambeth, in 1888, a better year than
1885 or 1887, scarlet fever deaths numbered 56, diphtheria S6,
measles 137, whooping cough 196 and typhoid fever 29. Cerebrospinal
fever was not recognised as a separate disease and the deaths
were attributed to various causes. The table summarising the
incidence of tuberculosis, quarter by quarter for the years 1941-45,
indicates that there was no significant change in the numbers notified
during the period, notifications per thousand population being in
the five years 2.19, 2.14, 2.21, 2.28 and 2.24 respectively.
Tuberculosis.
Notifications received during the year ended
31 st December, 1945
Pulmonary 347 (334)
Non-pulmonarv 41 (49)
Deaths certified 171 (142)