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OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM
One mild case was notified and treated at home where
recovery occurred without any effect on the child's vision.
ENTERIC FEVER.
One case of typhoid fever was notified in respect of a
patient in a mental hospital in July.
One resident was notified as suffering from paratyphoid
fever in August, and admitted to hospital, but the final diagnosis
proved to be pneumonia complicated by pleurisy.
DYSENTERY.
There was a slight increase in the number of notifications
of dysentery, a total of 28 being received, compared with 14
in 1949, but this was a great improvement on the 71 in 1948
and the average of 87 for the last 10 years.
Only one of the cases was an ordinary resident who may
have become infected abroad with Sonne dysentery. The
remainder were inmates of one or other of the mental hospitals
and some of these were infected with the Flexner type of the
disease, but at least 13 suffered from the milder Sonne type.
No deaths occurred from this cause among the residents of
the District.
CEREBRO-SPINAL FEVER.
One case was notified as suffering from cerebro-spinal
fever, but the diagnosis was not confirmed in the Isolation
hospital to which it was admitted, hence for the second successive
year no confirmed case of this disease has occurred.
POLIOMYELITIS.
Nationally this disease was again prevalent during the
second half of the year, and this District in common with
other areas experienced an increased number of cases. Altogether
15 persons were notified as suffering from poliomyelitis, but
in only 10 cases was the diagnosis confirmed, compared with
9, 2 and 11 in the preceding 3 years, and an average of 2 cases
per annum before 1947. As is usual at such times there was
evidence that other individuals were infected, but without any
paralysis developing, while there was a difference of opinion
among the Specialists regarding one of the " Negative " cases,
which in fact should probably have been accepted as an
additional case.
Of the 10 confirmed cases all but one had some paralysis,
and the first case unfortunately died. At the end of the year
one case was still in hospital with rather extensive paralysis,
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