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SECTION F.
PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER, INFECTIOUS
DISEASES.
General.
Cases of scarlet fever have dropped from 190 to 86 during this
year. Diphtheria cases notified have increased from 12 to 21,
but of this number 8 were not confirmed on admission to hospital
and were discharged in 3 or 4 days. There has been no case of
diphtheria amongst the children immunised at the clinic.
Diphtheria Immunisation.—A clinic was held at Hayes Cottage
Hospital every Saturday morning, with the exception of certain
holiday periods. During the year 47 sessions and 2,291 attendances
were recorded, and 480 certificates of immunity were
issued.
I append Dr. Bousfield's report on the work done during the
year
"During the year we have been using Alum-precipitated
Toxoid as a two-injection procedure. The product employed
has been that of Messrs. Evans, Sons, Lescher & Webb. Two
injections of 0.5 c.c. have been given at an interval of 14 days,
and the figures have been extremely satisfactory when these
children were re-Schick tested from 3 to 5 months later. It must
be made clear that all children inoculated were previously
shown to be Schick-positive or susceptible to diphtheria.
Of children treated in this manner, 231 have been re-tested.
Of these, 224 proved to be Schick-negative (successfully
immunised).
Seven were found still to give a positive result to the test.
The percentage of failure to immunise 3.03 per cent.
Successfully immunised 96.97 ,,
The 3.03 per cent. of children who did not respond to the
standard course of treatment received further injections of A.P.T.
It is interesting to compare these results with those obtained
in the use of the Mulford brand of A.P.T. which we used in 1937.
The testing of these cases after treatment was partly completed
in 1938 and the following figures are available. The method used
was two injections at 14 days' interval, the dosage in some
cases being 0.2 c.c. and 0.5 c.c., and in others 0.5 c.c. and 0.5 c.c.
Of 238 cases re-tested, 227 were found to be negative, while
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