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PREVALENCE AND CONTROL OF
INFECTIOUS DISEASES
From the table of infectious diseases set out on page 46, it
will be observed that 276 cases of infectious disease were notified
during the year, as against 1,579 in 1953. The infectious sickness
rate for the district was therefore 3.81, as compared with 21.89
during the previous year.
As noted elsewhere, the marked decline in the infectious
diseases notified during the year was due almost entirely to the
decrease in the notifications of measles (28 as against 1,053). The
decrease in the number of cases of pertussis notified (55 as against
138), scarlet fever (51 as against 128) and dysentery (52 as against
95) also contributed to the fall, while the decrease in tuberculosis
cases notified (42 as against 62) might also be mentioned. Altogether,
the total of 276 infectious diseases notified during the year
is the smallest I can remember as having been recorded in
Southgate.
In the introduction to this Report, I once again mentioned the
fact that the term epidemiology has now taken on a new significance.
We must no longer confine our attention to infectious
diseases per see, but must concern ourselves with any disease or
contributory cause of disease which makes itself apparent among
the population. So far as Southgate is concerned, this more or less
reduces itself to the investigation of unusual illnesses which may
have sprung from quite unexpected sources. Here, of course, one
is very largely dependent on the information received from general
practitioners. Thus, in the past, I have been informed of cases of
infective hepatitis among school children some time before the
information could have been obtained from the schools concerned;
while family doctors and schools have been very helpful in letting
us know of outbreaks of such diseases as winter vomiting. I am
most grateful for this assistance, and have communicated my thanks
both to general practitioners and to head teachers.
Altogether, as I say, Southgate is not the type of district in
which it could be said that conditions favourable to the spread of
disease exist, we must continue to search for such conditions which
may well be latent; we must also strive to take such measures as
are possible to prevent these disease-producing factors from arising,
to destroy any weeds which may take root, however tenuous,
in our garden. This is the true meaning of epidemiology in its
widest, its most modern sense.
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