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7
To the Chairman and Members of the Orpington Urban District
Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Few of us, when suffering from that comparatively benign, but
none the less exasperating affliction, the common cold, are in any mood
to devote much thought to the ultimate cause of our discomfort.
If we pursued the matter, however, we should find that our illness was
due to infection with a virus, one of a group of parasites in size much
smaller even than the bacteria, but nevertheless responsible for a great
deal of human disease.
Many common infections are known to be caused by viruses,
among these being influenza, measles, and chicken-pox, but none
would dispute that one of the most distressing of the virus diseases
is poliomyelitis, also known as infantile paralysis. The development
of a new weapon for use against this latter disease is therefore a major
advance in preventive medicine, and for this reason, although the
plans for poliomyelitis vaccination did not mature during the year
covered by my report, this would be incomplete without some mention
of the new vaccine.
Extensive use of a similar vaccine in Canada and the United
States has produced convincing evidence as to the effectiveness and
safety of this immunising agent, and it would seem that the principal
unknown quantity is the duration of the immunity that will be conferred,
and whether or not periodic "booster" doses will be advisable
to maintain this immunity at a safe level.
The answers to these and other questions will become apparent
in due course, and will be awaited with considerable interest. In the
meantime, however, those concerned with research will not be content
to rest on their laurels, for there is still much to be learned about the
natural history of the virus, and the prevention and treatment of the
disease. Indeed, it is not being unduly pessimistic to predict that,
unless some unforeseen discovery transforms the situation, this
research will need to continue for many years yet before the final
conquest of the disease can be assured.
A full account of the occurrence of poliomyelitis, and of the
other notifiable infectious diseases will be found in the body of this
report, and it is not. my intention to dwell on these in detail here.
It may, however, not be inappropriate in this connection to sound a
note of warning, lest in a justifiable preoccupation with a new problem,
there should be a tendency to relax our efforts in those fields where
substantial progress has already been made. To mention but one
example, if a high level of immunity against diphtheria is not maintained
by immunisation, it is more than likely that this once rampant,
but now rare infection would return to tyrannise the community.
The business of keeping fit is becoming very much a personal
affair and much of the success achieved in the prevention of disease