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the most part single sporadic cases. Many of these would have arisen from contact
with unrecognised carriers in the population and the problem presented by these infections
is largely that of discovering the symptomless carriers and bringing them under
effective treatment.
Erysipelas
There were 297 notifications of erysipelas, compared with 361 in 1955 and one death
in each of these years. It has been recognised for some time that notification of this
disease is grossly defective and the figures therefore give little idea of the true incidence
of the disease.
Food
poisoning
Notifications of food poisoning fell from 1,530 in 1955 to 1,327 in 1956. The great
majority of the notifications were single sporadic cases or small family outbreaks.
Larger outbreaks were comparatively rare.
Influenza
There were 120 deaths from influenza in 1956, compared with 164 in the preceding
year. Reference to the figures given below will show that the last three years have all
shown an influenza death rate that was lower than average. No severe epidemic of
influenza has occurred during these years, but as the visitations of the influenza virus
have been irregular in the past no inference can be drawn as to future epidemics.
Year
Influenza
deaths
1943 726
1944 206
1945 171
1946 371
1947 284
1948 78
1949 372
Year
Influenza
deaths
1950 256
1951 809
1952 162
1953 514
1954 83
1955 164
1956 120
Leptospirosis
During the year arrangements were made with certain hospitals in London for the
administration of a prophylactic course of penicillin V to sewer workers who sustained
minor injuries while at work. Apart from this addition to the first-aid facilities the
precautions taken by sewer workers against leptospirosis remained unchanged. One
case occurred during the year among the sewer workers in the Council's employment.
Measles
The year 1956 was not an epidemic year and incidence followed the expected
course. Notifications increased steadily during the second quarter of the year, after
which they declined during the autumn to rise in November and during the latter
part of the year towards the peak of the biennial epidemic which did not occur until
the early months of 1957. The mildness shown by this disease in recent years was once
again exhibited in 1956. There were only two deaths in 9,651 notifications and one of
these was in a woman in the 70-74 years age group.
Meningococcal
infections

Between 1954 and 1956 reports were obtained from Coroners and hospitals in
respect of deaths from meningococcal infection. The majority had resulted from an
illness of an acute fulminating type with purpura and suprarenal haemorrhage. The
duration of the illness from onset to death was frequently less than 24 hours, a finding
that underlines the necessity for instituting early and vigorous treatment. In a number
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