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67
DIPHTHERIA.
15 cases of Drphetheria were notified and removed to hospital
2 of these were found to be suffering from Scarlet Fever, and 1 notification
was withdrawn as the swabs from the throat proved negative.
and the child did not show any clinical signs of the disease.
Three other cases were admitted to hospital for observation, but
were found not to be suffering from the disease and were discharged
in a few days. There were therefore 12 cases of Diphtheria with 2
deaths. Eleven of the twelve cases were in children who had not
been artificially immunised, and both deaths occurred in children
whose parents had either refused or neglected artificial immunisation.
The only child who developed clinical diphtheria and had been
previously immunised developed the disease in a mild form ; he had
been inoculated in 1932.
In the School Report particulars are given of the steps which
were taken in 1936 to carry out artificial immunisation, and the difficulties
which attend. One of the dangers which we now have to
bee is the comparative freedom of the district from diphtheria. In
the second half of 1936, only two cases occurred in the district, in
onsequence we have two undesirable results. The parents become
apathetic and neglect to have their children immunised. The district
is practically free of diphtheria so why worry ! But this freedom
from the disease is a Source of potential danger. When the incidence
of the disease is fairly high, a percentage of the children are
renered immune, or ar any rate, partially immune by sub-clinical
doses of the infecting agent, though they may not have suffered from
clinical diphtheria. These children have a certain amount of antitoxin
circulating in their blood and if they contract diphtheria it is
possible for the attack to be modified. This method of protection
not only unscientific and haphazard, but usually insufficient.
When a district is free of the disease even this modified protection
is removed, and if an unprotected child does contract the disease the
attack is likely to be a Severe one.
There are other factors which decide the severity or otherwise
of the attack, such as the kind of bacteria, &c., but the lessened
immunity of the child in a district free of diphtheria is of wider significance.
SCARLET FEVER.
. 177 cases of Scarlet Fever were notified, but there was no
death from the disease Over 70 per cent, of the cases occurred in
North East and North West Wards, and the school mainly
affected was the Action Wells School. Although no missed cases