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immunisation which, not so many years ago, would have
been considered quite unattainable. They obviously
redound to the credit and intelligence of our mothers,
who appreciate to the full the advantages which protection
against such diseases as diphtheria, pertussis
(whooping cough), poliomyelitis and smallpox will
convey to their infants.
Immunisation figures for 1958.
Children immunised against diphtheria
or diphtheria and whooping cough
combined 306
(a) At County Council Clinics 194
(b) By family doctors 112
Children giving re-inforcing
injections 679
Scarlet Fever.
Thirty-nine cases of scarlet fever were
notified during 1958 as against thirty-seven in 1957.
The notifications for the previous three years were
37, 22 and 12 respectively.
I remarked in the Annual Report for 1957 that
it was no longer considered necessary to exclude home
contacts of scarlet fever from school. The fact
that the exclusion of contacts results merely in a
loss of school time, without in any way materially
reducing the risk of spreading scarlet fever in schools,
is shown by the fact that the new policy has not
resulted in any increase in the number of scarlet fever
cases reported from our schools. Scarlet fever
continues to be an extremely mild disease; indeed,
it is so mild that one often wonders whether anything
like 100% of the cases which occur in any given year
are reported to us. As I have remarked so many
times before, however, we must remain on our guard in
case the more virulent type of scarlet fever which we
-all remember so well before the war should return.
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