View report page

There was an appreciable decrease in the number of
whooping cough cases notified viz. from 131 to 28, which probably
reflects the high immunisation rates and the effectiveness of the
improved vaccine in use during the year.
No cases of diphtheria, tetanus, ophthalmia neonatorum,
poliomyelitis, leptospirosis, paratyphoid fever, malaria, plague,
cholera, anthrax, smallpox, typhus fever, relapsing fever, yellow
fever or tuberculosis of the central nervous system were notified
during the year.
The typhoid case was of unusual origin. One usually
associates this disease with holidaymakers returning from abroad
but in this case the patient concerned was a laboratory assistant
at a privately owned laboratory in London and contracted the
disease whilst carrying out tests in the laboratory.
The usual number of typhoid and paratyphoid contacts
returning from holidays overseas required investigation and
surveillance.
There was an increase in the number of measles cases
notified — 949 as against 351 last year — but nothing like the
usual high number that could normally be expected during this
''epidemic year" which comes every alternate year. The forced
reduction of the measles vaccination programme which came about
in the early summer and continued throughout the remainderof the
year — due to the withdrawal of one type of vaccine and the subsequent
adverse publicity in the national press — must have had
a bearing on this increase. At the end of the year measles notifications
were rising sharply and the disease, which though minor
in most children, carries a significant percentage of distressing
and permanent side effects, may get out of control unless a
higher proportion of the child population become immunised.
Infective jaundice notifications also showed an increase
from 23 to 72 but it could be that rather than an increased
incidence of this disease there was a greater awareness amongst
general practitioners following the publicity it received under
the Public Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations, 1968, and
its subsequent promotion to a fully-fledged nationally notifiable
disease as against its regional status of previous years.
16