View report page

25
PART 3
COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
During the year, 1,207 notifications were received as compared
with 1,891 in 1970. The total number of confirmed notifiable
diseases, arranged in age groups and areas in which they occurred,
are shown in Tables 4 and 5 which follow. A commentary on the
notifications is given below.
Vaccination and immunization against serious infectious diseases
is an important feature of communicable disease control and
details of this personal health service will be found in Part 5 of
the Report.
Acute encephalitis
The one case reported occurred in an elderly woman following
smallpox vaccination.
Acute meningitis
Of the seven cases notified, six were babies of one year or under,
the other a school child. All were isolated incidents. One baby of
four months died.
Cholera
No cases were reported but in relation to an outbreak in Spain,
253 residents who arrived back in this country without a valid
international certificate of vaccination were kept under surveillance.
Diphtheria
No cases occurred during 1971.
Dysentery
A total of 311 notifications of dysentery or suspected dysentery
were investigated, 60 being confirmed on bacteriological examination.
These were all either single unrelated incidents or family
episodes. No outbreaks occurred in schools or similar institutions.