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7. SCARLET FEVER.
Three hundred and thirty-four notifications of scarlet
fever were received during the year, the number for 1941 being
ninety-three. This shows a considerable increase but the type of
infection was not severe.
You, as a Council, in the latter part of the year, with due
approval of the Minister of Health, set up ways and means whereby a
temporary supply of medicine and medical assistance (including
nursing), could be provided for inhabitants of the district where
hospitalisation could not be arranged.
Facilities for hospitalisation of infectious diseases are
now reasonable, but in the year under review (1942) our difficulties
in this respect were indeed great; accommodation for such cases was
in great demand and we, in common with others, experiaiced great
difficulty in securing the admission of patients, and on occasion
patients had to be admitted to hospitals so far distant as Billericay
and Enfield.
8. WHOOPING COUGH.
Notifications of this disease show a considerable decrease,
the total number being two hundred and ninety, whereas in the year
1941, six hundred and fifty-eight cases were notified. Whooping
cough is a disease very difficult to diagnose. Children can have
this complaint without 'whooping' even once and not all cases who
'whoop' are definitely suffering from whooping cough. Figures,
therefore, must always be taken with reserve.
9. MEASLES.
The incidence of this disease during the middle of the year
was somewhat high. On the other hand, the total cases for the whole
of the year numbered 1,260 which shows a slight decrease compared with
notifications during the year 1941.
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