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60
Whooping cough
After the relatively high number in 1960 the cases in 1961 fell to
about one-fifth, 65 in all—probably a low record. Whooping cough is
however a preventable disease, and attention is called to the desirability
of young children being protected by immunisation, as whooping cough
is in general the more serious the younger the child is. Whooping
cough immunisation can be combined with diphtheria immunisation,
thus reducing the number of injections the young child requires.
Tuberculosis
After the dramatic fall in 1959 the number of cases in 1960 dropped
a little, and in 1961 they dropped a little further—from 134 to 123.
113 of these were pulmonary and were scattered evenly through the
three divisions of the borough. The biggest number occurred in the
age group 25-45 followed closely by the age group 45-65. As in previous
years there were many more cases in males than in females as far as respiratory
tuberculosis was concerned, there being 71 males (a decrease of
7) and 42 females (an increase of 1). With the drop in cases and the small
increase in population the rate per 100,000 came down to 51, the lowest
on record. The death rate, however, rose to 8 from 5.