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Pertussis.
Forty-seven cases of pertussis were notified during
the year, as against 86 in 1954.
The fall in the incidence of this disease will be
shown when the figures relating to the past five years are
considered. These were 47, 86, 32, 65 and 91 respectively.
It may be that the widespread adoption by parents of
the combined method of immunisation for their children is
having an effect. This combined method, whereby children
can be inoculated against diphtheria and pertussis at the
same time, has been more or less accepted by parents attending
County Council clinics as standard procedure. I understand
from general practitioners that they are finding the same
thing. It would certainly be dangerous, however, to draw
any lasting conclusion from the figures set out above. But
they are at least heartening, and would seem to show that the
policy which we adopted in Friern Barnet was justified.
Food Poisoning (including Sonne Dysentery.)
One case of dysentery and three cases of food poisoning
were reported during the year, as against 17 cases of
dysentery and 3 cases of food poisoning during the previous
year.
As I have mentioned on several occasions, the only
thing which can be said about these figures is that they
almost certainly represent only a fraction of the cases which
have occurred during the period under review. Many cases,
both of food poisoning and of dysentery are extremely slight,
and are never seen by a doctor. Even when seen by a doctor
they are sometimes well on the way to recovery, so that
notification would merely be a waste of time. For this
reason, we merely hear about dysentery and food poisoning
when either of these diseases are present in large numbers,
e.g. in a school. Having regard to the mild character of
the common dysentery, i.e. Sonne dysentery and food poisoning
as it usually occurs, it does not seem that any more
stringent action is at the moment necessary.
As District School Medical Officer, I have recently
tried out a scheme for the exclusion of all children from
school for one week who are reported to be suffering from
diarrhoea and/or sickness. The children are only allowed
to return on the production of a clearance certificate,
signed either by the family doctor, a clinic doctor or
health visitor The system is working out very well
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