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I must, however, record a note of warning once again.
Diphtheria is like a wild beast which is prevented from rampaging
by a strong chain, represented by immunisation. The beast is potentially
as strong as ever and will break out the moment it finds the chain weak
enough. Weakness can be caused by complacency and indifference and we
must ensure that the public are ever-reminded of the dangers of diphtheria
and the wonderful insurance given by immunisation.
In Barking the response to diphtheria immunisation remains satisfactory
as shown by the following figures which give the percentages of
children, in various age groups, who had been immunised at the end of the
year:—
0—5 years 58.8%
5—15 „ 87.2%
0—15 „ 76.0%
More detailed figures are given in the Table on page 36.
Smallpox
For many years cases of smallpox in this country have been comparatively
few and in Barking we have not had a case for nearly 20 years.
We were reminded during the year, however, that modern traransport
has brought us uncomfortably close to reservoirs of infection in far-off
parts of the world in that outbreaks of the disease were started in various
parts of the Country by travellers who had contracted particularly virulent
forms of the disease in Asiatic countries.
Fortunately, Barking was not involved in these outbreaks, but they
did prove an unpleasant reminder that we still have to be vigilant, the
more so because a generation has grown up to whom the honors of
smallpox are unknown.
Tuberculosis
Much still remains to be done to curb this disease and in the article
dealing with the Wastage of Human Life, I have outlined some of the
preventive measures which are at our disposal.
The following table shows the number of cases added to our Register
during the year.
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