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PREVALENCE AND CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
From the table of infectious diseases set out on page 41 it
will be observed that 365 cases of infectious disease were notified
during the year as against 1,232 in 1953. The infectious
sickness rate for the district was therefore 7,14, as compared
with 23.9 during the previous year.
The decrease is almost due entirely to the fall in measles
and pertussis (whooping cough) notifications. Scarlet fever notifications
remained almost constant at the very low total of 61:
food poisoning and dysentery notifications showed a slight rise
(65 against 58). These matters will be referred to later in rel
ation to each disease.
The total number of infectious diseases notified during the
year (365) is the lowest recorded in Wood Green since measles and
pertussis were added to the list of notifiable diseases.
In the introduction to this Report I once again mentioned
the fact that the term epidemiology has now taken on a new signi
ficance. We must no longer confine our attention to infectious
diseases £er se but must concern ourselves with any disease or
contributory cause of disease which makes itself apparent among
the population. So far as Wood Green 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 information received
from general practitioners. Thus in the past, I have been in
formed 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.
Although as I say Wood Green is not the type of district
in which it could be said that conditions especially favourable
to the spread of disease exist we must continue to search for
such conditions, which may very well be latent. We must also
strive to take such steps as are possible to prevent these diseases
producing factors from arising from taking root in our midst.
This is the true meaning of epidemiology in its widest its most
modern sense.
Leaving aside the important question of epidemiology as we
know it today, the picture in regard to infectious diseases is
still relatively fluent In my Annual Report for 1953 I mentioned
the reduction in severity, particularly as it affects a disease
such as scarlet fever. These remarks still apply. We also know
that virus diseases many indeterminate and still being investi
gated have shown a definite tendency to increase. Among these
diseases, the complaint known as winter vomiting is particularly
apparent. This disease has little more than nuisance value and
has not shown itself capable of producing either a serious ill
ness or dangerous after effects. None-the-less the appearance
of new virus diseases must be treated with great caution since
we know only too well the ravages which a virus disease such as
poliomyelitis can produce. Unfortunately, only a proportion
virtually an unknown proportion, of virus infections are at
present notifiable. This is inevitable,as many of these diseases
are extremely mild, while their relationship to other diseases
and their precise position in the general pattern have not yet
beenfiisllly established. In the meantime, therefore, we continue
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