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decrease from the 48 of the previous year and the death rate at 0-17
is the lowest on record. The position with regard to tuberculosis over
the country as a whole seems to be that the death rate is going down
rapidly while the notification rate, certainly as far as respiratory
tuberculosis is concerned, has remained fairly stationary. This has
been thought to be due in the main to increased activity in finding out
cases — by mass x-ray, examination of near contacts of patients and so
on. These efforts still continue, and therefore the diminution in
notifications in this area in 1954 is a hopeful sign that the actual
sources of infection are also decreasing, and if this is so we can look
forward to even more rapid decreases in the future. However it is
too early yet to be certain.
Food hygiene
The notified cases of food poisoning during the year amounted to
110, against only 32 in the previous year. Some 80 of these however
were connected with one incident which occurred at an institution in
the area. Throughout the year food inspectors continued to give
advice to occupiers of food shops with regard to general hygiene and
pest control and towards the end of the year a more specific propaganda
campaign was started by the food inspectors, and priority in this
campaign was given to dairies, distributors of milk, icecream sellers,
pastrycooks (and bakers), butchers, and greengrocers, in that order.
It was proposed to follow up this campaign, which was directed to
owners and employees of food premises, by a further campaign in the
spring of this year directed primarily to the public.
Infectious disease other than tuberculosis
With regard to the more acute infections the year showed an
unexpected decline in the number of measles cases, 521 only, this
number being the first year since 1947 in which less than about 2,000
cases have been notified. I am sure the low figure was due to chance
and the fact that the expected winter epidemic started rather later
than usual (as a matter of interest the first three months of 1955
produced about 3,000 cases). Dysentery cases reached a peak of 394,
which is the highest figure on record, the next being 365 in 1951.
We were relatively fortunate in poliomyelitis in that the number of
cases dropped from 52 in 1953 to 16 last year. Of these 16 cases 12
were non-paralytic. Whooping cough was slightly down on the year
before, but even so there were 449 cases which must have caused a
considerable amount of distress and also probably some unpleasant
complications. It is only right to remind the public that immunisation
against whooping cough is much more effective than it used to be.
Whooping cough is more dangerous the younger the child is and is
particularly dangerous under one year of age. It is as well therefore
to get the child protected as early as possible and meanwhile to do
everything to keep it away from likely sources of infection.