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45
Diphtheria.
For the first time since records have been kept no case of this
disease occurred in the course of the year.
There appears little doubt but that public awareness of the
value of immunisation has aided materially' in producing this result
but it would have been foolish to ascribe our long standing immunity
to this factor alone as the state of immunity of our population, and
especially our susceptible population, is not sufficiently high to warrant
any such assumption. Apart from the susceptibility of the
individual it would seem that the virulence of the attacking organism
may in the past few years have undergone something of a
change, which equally of course may be transient in character.
DIPHTHERIA.
Notifications 1937-1947.
Year.
Total
Notifications.
1937
52
1938
45
1939
27
1940
42
1941
36
1942
25
1943
9
1944
7
1945
8
1946
4
1947
0
Diphtheria Immunisation.
It will be known that the County Council as the Welfare
Authority are responsible for dealing with the children under 5
years of age, while the local Council are responsible for those children
over that age. In practice we, as agents of the County Council,
deal with the under fives also to a very large extent maintaining, of
course, a. close liaison with the County in this matter.
During the year 1,408 children (1,292 under 5, and 116 over 5)
completed the course, which consists of two injections of A.P.T.
with an interval of four weeks, and 671 children were given a
secondary or re-inforcing injection subsequent to the complete full
course.
The following shows the immunisation state in relation to the
child population regarding the number of children who had completed
a full course of immunisation at any time up to 31st December,
1947