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15
the subjoined diagram, on which the continuous lines indicate the trend of the notification
rates in the three age groups 0-4, 5-14, 15+, and the broken line indicates the
percentage not artificially immunised. During 1948 the rates have continued their
rapid decline although the degree of artificial immunisation at school ages having
reached 75 per cent. has tended to become stabilised.
There were 19 deaths from diphtheria in London in 1948. Detailed reports are
available in 15 of these fatalities and in all cases they show that the victims had not
been previously immunised.
It cannot be too strongly emphasised that the maintenance of this good progress
depends upon the co-operation of the public in increasing still further the rate of
immunisation; great efforts must be made not only to ensure that there is no falling
off in the existing proportion immunised but also to convince those parents who have
not yet decided to come within the scheme that to leave their children unprotected
is to invite the return of those tragedies which, only ten years ago, occurred with
such appalling and needless frequency.
The mortality from diarrhoea and enteritis under two years of age (164 deaths)
amounted to 2.69 per thousand live births, compared with 4.47 in the previous year.
The following diagram shows the trend of mortality in London and England and
Wales in recent years. Ten years ago the London rate was twice as great as the
national rate. It now appears that the difference between the London rate and the
average for the country as a whole is small but favourable to London, and that both
rates are declining.
Diarrhœa and
enteritis
b