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from 47 to 18, a surprising figure when the comparable
figures relating to measles are remembered.
Tuberculosis notifications remained almost stationary
(15 cases in 1955; 17 cases in 1956). Only one case
of poliomyelitis was notified during the year, as against
two cases in 1955. Food poisoning (including Sonne
dysentery) notifications rose from four in 1955 to 45
in 1956. It should be noted, however, that 21 of the
38 cases of dysentery recorded occurred in Friern Hospital.
All these matters will be considered in greater detail
in subsequent paragraphs of this section of the Report.
I have drawn attention in a number of previous
Annual Reports to the fact that the severity of infectious
diseases as a whole has appreciably decreased. This
is very clearly manifested by the small percentage of
cases which now have to be admitted to hospital. When
one remembers that many of these cases are only sent to
hospital because of home conditions or because both the
mother and father go out to work, it will be more than
ever apparent that the picture has completely altered.
Indeed, it is now considered by many authorities that
the need for ad hoc isolation hospitals has almost passed.
Many existing isolation hospitals are now used for
multiple purposes, of which the treatment of infectious
diseases is only one. We must, of course, remember
that the virulence of infectious diseases has been known
to change in the past, so that we can never be sure
that the conditions which many of us still remember
only too vividly will not return. It is mainly
for this reason that sufficient beds can still bo made
available for the treatment of infectious diseases in
hospitals should circumstances change.
Our policy with regard to the exclusion of
contacts of infectious diseases from school has recently
been revised. It is virtually certain, for instance,
that a child suffering from an infectious disease does
not remain infective for anything like the length of
time which was previously believed. We have,
therefore, been able to reduce the exclusion period
in the case of contacts of many infectious diseases,
especially the milder type of infectious disease such
as scarlet fever and measles. Needless to say,
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