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x Excluding Friern Hospital.
PREVALENCE AND CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
Details of the cases of infectious disease
notified during the year will be found in the Tables set
out at the end of the Report. The total of 540 is higher
than in 1952, due mainly to the high incidence of measles
in the first two months of the year, when 395 cases were
notified. These were part of a larger total resulting
from an epidemic which started in the last weeks of 1952,
during which period 195 cases were reported. Fortunately
the disease was of a mild type and only in four instances
was hospital treatment necessary.
Whooping Cough.
There was a decrease in the number of cases of
this disease, 32 being notified compared with 65 in the
previous year. None of the cases required hospital
treatment.
Scarlet Fever.
Thirty-one notifications were received, an increase
of five over 1952. All the cases were of a mild type.
For a number of years patients have been removed to hospital
only when circumstances have made it desirable either for
treatment or to control the risk of infection. In 1953,
six cases were admitted. The infection was not limited to
any particular period of the year or part of the District.
In two instances members of the patient's family, who were
employed in the food trade, were excluded from work for
short periods as a precautionary measure.
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