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12
THE CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Notification is the essential preliminary to control of infectious
disease. The diseases notifiable under the Public Health Act 1936
are smallpox, cholera, diphtheria, membranous croup, erysipelas,
scarlet fever, typhus, typhoid, enteric and relapsing fever.
The Minister of Health has also made regulations whereby
the following diseases are also notifiable : plague, poliomyelitis,
tuberculosis, puerperal pyrexia, ophthalmia neonatorum, malaria,
dysentery, acute primary pneumonia, acute influenzal pneumonia,
measles, whooping cough, acute encephalitis and meningococcal
infection.
Food poisoning is notifiable under the provisions of the Food
and Drugs Act of 1938.
Isolation.
Cases of infectious disease need to be isolated to prevent
spread among the general public. The stringency of isolation will
depend both on the type of disease and its severity. As a rule
the infectivity is most marked for the first few days and then falls
off rapidly.
Those suffering from infectious disease should not go out into
public places, use public transport, mingle with crowds in cinemas,
theatres, sports, pass on articles with which they have been in
contact, such as library books, or send dirty linen to a public
laundry.
It is still insufficiently appreciated that the common cold and
influenza are highly infectious conditions (although not notifiable),
and that sufferers in the early stages have a social duty to isolate
themselves at home.
The commoner children's complaints such as chickenpox,
mumps and German measles are now so mild that hospital treatment
is rarely required.
Measles and whooping cough may lead to serious complications ;
and where the child is very young, debilitated, or unsuitably housed,
hospital treatment may be necessary.
Scarlet Fever although still prevalent has been of a mild type
for many years and in-patient care is not generally advised.
The more serious diseases such as diphtheria, poliomyelitis,
typhoid, meningococcosis and smallpox are usually nursed in
hospital because of the severity of the disease and need for skilled
medical and nursing care. Smallpox because of its intense infec-