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PREVALENCE AND CONTROL OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES
From the table of infectious diseases set out on page 41 it
will be seen that 265 cases of infectious diseases were notified
during the year, as against 852 in 1955. The Infectious Sickness
Rate for the district was therefore 5.29. as compared with l0.83
during the previous year. Although this figure is very satisfactory,
it must be remembered that 1956 was a year in which measles
was non-epidemic. This is the main reason why the total number of
infectious diseases notified during the year fell so considerably.
Apart from the fall in measles notifications (27 against 635),
there is very little to which detailed attention need be drawn.
Scarlet fever notifications fell from 26 in 1955 to 17 in 1956;
pertussis notifications rose from 28 to 37; food poisoning (including
sonne dysentery) notifications rose from 61 to 94, while
tuberculosis notifications remained almost stationary (63 cases
in 1955: 67 cases in 1956). Five cases of poliomyelitis were
notified during the year, the same figure as for 1955.
I have drawn attention in a number of previous Annual Reports
indeed, in the introduction to this Report, to the fact that the
severity of infectious diseases as a whole has appreciably decreased.
This is very clearly manifested by the small percentage
of cases which now have to be admitted to hospital. When one remembers
that many of these cases are only sent to hospital because
of home conditions or because both the mother and the father go
out to work, it will be more than ever apparent that the picture
has completely altered. Indeed, it is now considered by many
authorities that the need for ad hoc isolation hospitals has
almost passed. Many existing isolation hospitals are now being
used for multiple purposes, of which the treatment of infectious
diseases is only one. We must, of course, remember that the virulence
of infectious diseases has been known to change in the past,
so that we can never be sure that conditions which many of us
still remember only too vividly will not return. It is mainly for
this reason that sufficient beds can still be made available for
the treatment of infectious diseases in hospital should circumstances
change.
Our policy with regard to the exclusion of contacts of infectious
diseases from school has recently been revised. It is now
virtually certain that a child suffering from an infectious
disease does not remain infective for anything like the length
of time previously believed. We have, therefore, been able to
reduce the exclusion period in the case of contacts of many infectious
diseases, especially the milder type of infectious disease
such as scarlet fever and measles. Needless to say, of course,
the period of exclusion of contacts of such diseases as poliomyelitis,
where the duration of infectivity is still not clearly
known and where the disease itself can be very serious, remains
more or less as before. Broadly speaking, the Medical Officer of
Health is given a wide latitude in the matter of school exclusion.
I have referred to this matter on several occasions in submitting
detailed reports to the Public Health Committee, and will continue
to keep the Committee informed of any changes in policy. Our
present system aims at obviating unnecessary loss of school
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