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SECTION F.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES CONTROL
Tables are included in this section to show the progress of various
Immunisation campaigns against Diphtheria, Smallpox and Poliomyelitis.
There has not yet been a complete year for corresponding figures
for the Whooping Cough Immunisation to be included.
Other Tables show the distribution of infectious diseases in the
Wards of the Borough, during the different months and according
to age and sex.
Measles was three times more prevalent than last year, but the
biennial increase was a third less than the average. There was an
increase of four cases of poliomyelitis entirely due to the non-paralytic
type of illness. The distribution of paralytic cases was exactly that of
1956 in the ratio of three males to one female.
Whooping Cough was slightly less prevalent, and the majority of
illnesses were in children between the ages of five and 14 years. There
were two girls affected for every boy.
It is too early to assess the value of the whooping cough immunisations
now being carried out in the Infant Welfare Clinics, and it has to
be remembered that for many years these immunisations have been
carried out in Beckenham other than in the Clinics. The notifications
of whooping cough for this age group over the past ten years are as
follows:-
1957 1956 1955 1954 1953 1952 1951 1950 1949 1948
64 111 97 52 163 47 118 86 52 70
So far there seems to be little effect of this campaign even allowing
for under-notification of whooping cough and epidemic variations,
but vaccines have been improved in recent years, and any value of the
new vaccines will be shown first of all in this age group.
Chickenpox is not a notifiable disease, but the incidence of this
illness seems to have increased in recent years, and at times it can cause
such a severe illness that smallpox is simulated. An adult of 33 years
with confluent chickenpox was examined in consultation with the
Smallpox Consultant of the Rivers Hospital Group at the request of
the family doctor during the last week of July. It was not necessary
to obtain bacteriological exclusion of smallpox and no further action
was necessary. The consultation had to be carried out at a late hour
owing to the illness of the Consultant who was originally approached.
This is only the second such consultation in the past six years.
Notifications of food poisoning remain at about the same level,
and are so predominantly due to Salmonella typhi-murium that there
seems little point in listing the various other types.
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