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23
SECTION F.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
1,642 notifications of infectious diseases, excluding T.B., were
received in 1949, a rate equivalent to 27.7 per 1,000 population.
No less than 1,049 of these were due to mild types of measles.
The recurrence of poliomyelitis during 1949 was milder in
character than in the previous year, although there was one
death. Scarlet Fever was mild but prevalent. Diphtheria continues
to be in the trough of its wave of incidence. The general
picture of infectious diseases is that they have decreased in
virulence ; the reason is as yet unknown, but an underlying
biological factor is, no doubt, operating. We find the same in
the general improvement of death rate and in the physique of
children. It may well be that the Local Authorities who have
been so active in the work of Public Health over many years are
now getting results.
Anterior Poliomyelitis.
In common with the rest of the country, we had an outbreak
of infantile paralysis in the summer and autumn of 1949. On
such occasions as this theories as to the spread of the disease are
many and varied, but there are none which stand the test of
rational argument better than the old-fashioned one—that the
complaint is spread by healthy carriers. This would seem to be
the only explanation of the fact that more than one case in
family is the exception rather than the rule. In this feature it
differs entirely from, e.g., measles, which if picked up by one
child in a family usually affects all the rest of the household who
have not been immunised by a previous attack.
In view of our comparative ignorance of the spread of this
malady, preventive means are naturally difficult, but I did think
it worth while drawing up a short letter, which was handed to
all known contacts, advising them of the reasonable precautions
open to them. The local doctors were also circularised, and a
film showing the most recent advances in the diagnosis and treatment
of the disease was shown at Beckenham, and all the local
general practitioners were invited to its showing.
An interesting point which has arisen recently is the
discovery of a new virus disease which has been designated
lymphocytic choreo-meningitis. This condition is not fatal, but
is similar in its symptomatology to abortive anterior poliomyelitis,
and may have accounted for some of the pre-paralytic cases
of anterior poliomyelitis which were notified.