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16
I am happy to be able to put on record that we had no difficulty
whatsoever in dealing with the food aspect of the outbreak and
this no doubt materially helped in preventing any further spread
of the epidemic.
Diphtheria and scarlet fever have been prevalent more or
less throughout the whole of the year, and these cases, together
with those which occurred during the special outbreak, have made
what is perhaps a record year for infectious fevers in Barking.
These disastrous years come in cycles, and I am happy to be able
to say I hopefully expect that the next few years will show a very
considerable decline in the incidence of infectious disease.
May I once again take an opportunity of pointing out that
ultimately the control of infectious disease is in the hands of the
public themselves.
Scarlet feVer, diphtheria and kindred complaints are not so
much spread by the bad cases, which are immediately detected
and isolated, as they are spread by the mild cases, so mild that
medical attention is not even procured. These cases are nursed
for a minor illness at home, the nature of which is sometimes
guessed but oftentimes not known, and they give rise to the disease
in others, oftentimes of a severe type.