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21
SMALLPOX.
During the year no case of smallpox was notified, and no
case has occurred in the Borough since 1933.
Since 5th July, 1948, the compulsory vaccination of infants
as a protection against smallpox ceased to be compulsory. Routine
medical inspection in schools shows that only 32.7 per cent. of
Leyton school children are protected against smallpox by
vaccination.
DIPHTHERIA.
During the year 1949, and for the first time since official
figures became available, no case of confirmed diphtheria was
notified. To those of us who remember diphtheria as one of the
chief causes of death and lifelong disability and a severe drain on
national and local expenditure, this welcome turn in the tide is
most encouraging. In the year 1935 Leyton Corporation inaugurated
a municipal clinic for the immunisation of children
against diphtheria, and the work has gone on steadily ever since.
These figures show the difference between the figures of diphtheria
incidence and mortality in 1949 compared with those of the last
year before municipal facilities for diphtheria immunisation became
available.

SCARLET FEVER.
Scarlet fever has remained of the mild type to which we have
become accustomed during recent years. Since 1941 only one
death in the Borough has been attributable to scarlet fever, and
this was a child who died from cardiac failure due to rheumatic
carditis.