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51
Diphtheria and Diphtheria Immunisation.
Once again, and for the seventh consecutive year, I am
thankful to be able to report a complete absence of this disease
from our community.
The immunisation campaign against this illness appears to
have been wonderfully successful in the past, but with the development
of immunisation procedures against other diseases, and the
publicity given them, it is sincerely to be hoped that no one will
forget to have their children immunised against a disease which has
not yet been stamped out of the country entirely and could still
give rise to a serious epidemic if proper precautions are not taken.
The present position with regard to immunisation against this
disease is summarised in the following figures which have been
furnished by the County Medical Officer.
Of the children resident in the area, who were born since 1942,
a total of 1,051 received primary inoculations, and 1,532 received
reinforcing inoculations during 1956.
A total of 10,127 children under the age of 15 years have
completed a course of immunisation at some time prior to
31st December, 1956.
Dysentery.
This is a condition which is causing a good deal more trouble
than formerly. Fifty cases were notified during the year, as
against forty-two last year, but only three cases were sufficiently
serious to need hospital treatment. Generally speaking, the illness
is of a mild character and a great number must inevitably never
receive any medical attention, this combined with the fact that in
an outbreak there always appear to be a large number of symptomless
carriers, makes control by ordinary public health measures
extremely difficult as there must always be so many unsuspected
sources of infection. An exhortation to hand cleanliness is
probably the best single piece of advice that can be given in our
efforts to eradicate this very annoying complaint.
Food Poisoning.
Thirty-six single cases were notified to the department during
the course of the year, and of those, eight were sufficiently severe
as to necessitate hospital treatment. In an area of this size, it is
difficult to believe that this condition was limited to such small
numbers, and one would like to think that such was indeed the
case, but it would only be self deception not to acknowledge that
there must in reality have been many more cases. In point of fact,
many probable cases have such short lived symptoms that they
never come to the notice of the medical profession, despite the
fact that for a few hours the symptoms are most distressing.