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41
SMALLPOX.
No case of smallpox was notified during 1952.
For some eighty years vaccination against smallpox was
compulsory. As the law enforcing vaccination became progressively
less stringent the number of exemptions increased
progressively until 5th July, 1948 when the Vaccination Acts
were repealed and vaccination became no longer compulsory.
Although 1,397 children were born in Leyton in 1952, only
328 infants under one year (i.e., 23.46%) were vaccinated against
smallpox.
Of 3,968 children inspected in school, only 1,534 (i.e., 38.66%)
were found to be protected by vaccination.
Recent outbreaks of virulent smallpox (in Brighton and
Glasgow) have shown that we in this country are continuously
exposed to the introduction of smallpox from abroad in spite of
the strict precautions taken at sea ports and airfields to exclude
the disease.

The following is a statement of particulars appearing in the
Register of Notification of Cases of Tuberculosis for the year ended
31st December, 1952:—