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PREVALENCE AND CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
From the table of infectious diseases set out on page 40 it
will be observed that 852 cases were reported during the year as
against 365 in 1954 The infectious sickness rate for the district
was therefore 16 83 as compared with 7.14 for last year As I
have mentioned on several occasions in the past, it is virtually
useless to compare either the yearly totals of infectious diseases
or the infectious sickness rate. Nowadays, apart from any spasmodic
epidemics or outbreaks which may occur the infectious sickness
rate is more or less governed by the number of measles cases
reported in any twelve months During 1955, for instance, the
total of 852 cases of infectious diseases notified during the year
contained no less than 635 cases of measles i.e. 74.5% of the
total The fact that measles occurs in epidemic proportions every
second year, and the effect which this has on the infectious sick •
ness rate, will be further seen when it is remembered that the
total number of infectious diseases notified during 1954 was 365
and in 1953, which was an epidemic year so far as measles was
concerned, 1,232.
This is one of the ways in which the Annual Report of the
Medical Officer of Health has materially changed since before the
war Then neither measles nor whooping cough was notifiable so
that it was quite possible to draw fair and accurate comparisons
between the infectious sickness rate produced each year That has
now gone by the board, although of course, it is still possible
and sometimes very illuminating, to compare the individual totals
of the various notifiable infectious diseases as they occur year
by year This is especially valuable if one compares these totals
over a period of 10 15 or 20 years when the trend can be very
clearly seen.
The Council will also remember that on more than one occas
ion I have remarked that the general significance of infectious
diseases has completely altered in the last few decades In 1930
the word fever- was dreaded by all mothers who knew only too
well the type of illness which might result and which might be
followed by quite disastrous consequences Nowadays, although an
infectious disease can visit a child or an adult with considerable
severity and although some infectious diseases, especially the
new virus diseases and particularly poliomyelitis are still
frought with considerable peril, the whole pattern has been re
assembled Infectious diseases have ceased to bring wholesale
dread to a family: indeed there is now the contradictory fear
that parents are sometimes apt to treat them much too lightly
Although it is certainly a fact that today, and at least in Wood
Green , infectious diseases have ceased to be a killing or even an
incapacitating factor in more than a minute proportion of the
population, they should still be treated with due respect. We do
not know when virulence may change, we cannot say how long we will
remain immune from serious illness or harmful after-effects. For
that reason, although it sometimes appears as though we were
spending an unnecessary amount of time on precautionary measures
and on investigating contacts and "carriers", this is not really
the case. We have been able to modify our standard procedure to
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