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363
ZYMOTIC DIARRHŒA.
There were 10 deaths from this disease among children under
two years of age. The death rate is best expressed as the proportion
which the deaths under two years of age from this disease form to a
thousand births. The rate is only 8.2, which compares with 9 5,
the rate for London generally. In 1920 meteorological conditions
favoured a low rate.
The protection of food from flies and dust, cleanliness in the
home and of feeding utensils, the covering and frequent removal of
household rubbish, would save most of the lives lost from this
complaint.
INFLUENZA.
The deaths directly ascribed to this disease numbered 23.
Nurse Ager paid visits to a few cases reported to various Officials
of the Council.
In the event of Influenza again becoming prevalent, the
Ministry of Health have made arrangements for the preparation of a
stock of anti-influenza vaccine which is to be made available for
distribution, through Medical Officers of Health, to those medical
practitioners who may wish to use it. The vaccine is not guaranteed
to ward off an attack of the disease, but it has a protective value in
a large proportion of instances of its application, and there are
excellent grounds for maintaining that life will be saved, for the use
of such vaccines materially lessen the risk of the attack being complicated
by the secondary infections which are so fatal. Thus it is
mainly with the intention of mitigating or preventing these secondary
infections that vaccines have hitherto been employed.
The London County Council, as the Education Authority, has
granted permission to Borough Medical Officers of Health, to use the
school organisation for the purpose of distributing influenza leaflets.
This is a valuable concession, for there is no method which is equally
effective in rapidly bringing before the notice of the large section of
the community which needs such information most than through the
school children in elementary schools.