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18
According to the Registrar-General's classification there were two deaths from
diphtheria in London during the year. One was a male child age 7 who died of
faucial diphtheria and had not been previously immunised ; the other was a female
adult age 60 who died from suppurative thyroditis and stenosis of the trachea
following tracheotomy performed at age 7. Since the initiating disease for which
the operation was performed was diphtheria according to the certifying practitioner
this death has by international agreement been assigned to this disease.
DIPHTHERIA — AGE INCIDENCE
NOTIFICATIONS PER 1.000 LIVING IN AGE GROUPS
It cannot be too strongly emphasised that the maintenance of this good progress
depends upon the co-operation of the public in sustaining and even increasing still
further the rate of immunisation ; great efforts must be made to ensure that there is
no falling off in the existing proportion immunised. To leave children unprotected
is to invite the return of those tragedies which, only a decade ago, occurred with
appalling and needless frequency. In 1939 there were over 2,000 confirmed cases of
diphtheria in London and 98 deaths.
Diarrhoea
and
enteritis
The mortality from diarrhoea and enteritis under two years of age (44 deaths)
amounted to 0.84 per 1,000 live births, a figure that is less than half that in 1949.
Enteritis is not a notifiable disease so it is not possible to say whether this is due to
a decrease in incidence or severity or both. There has been a steady decline in
mortality for some years, and during the last ten years the London rate has fallen
more rapidly than the national rate. It is the opinion of some hospital workers that
during the last two or three years there has been a decrease in the incidence of the
severe forms of gastro-enteritis, which may be a reflection of changes in the prevalence