View report page

immunity, can at least be guaranteed in the vast majority of instances
to result in a much milder attack There is no evidence
that the incidence of tuberculosis has decreased to any very marked
extent over the past few decades. Here again, however, early diagnosis,
careful supervision, the great work of chest clinics and
mass radiography units, and the use of the newer antibiotics have
very considerably eliminated the gravity of this disease. Today
a person suffering from tuberculosis who is discovered reasonably
early has an almost one hundred per cent chance of recovery. Deaths
have fallen remarkably. This does not meanr of course, that we
must relax our efforts in any way A local authority has still a
very significant part to play - especially in the matter of
housing - in the control of tuberculosis.
All these matters will be considered in greater detail in
the sections of the Report dealing with the supervision and control
of infectious diseases.
Although the figures provided in the Annual Report for 1906
do not provide us with all the information we might desire, we
know that the community did not then have to face the onslaught
of the various viruses which result in such illnesses as acute
anterior poliomyelitis, virus pneumonia, virus influenza, winter
vomiting, etc. There is also no way of comparing the incidence
of such diseases as dysentery and food poisoning, diseases which
are by no means new, and wnich must have taken a greater toll in
those early days when the control of foodstuffs was not so strict
as it is today It has been said that the disappearance from our
midst of such diseases as diphtheria and, to a very marked extent,
the typhoid fevers, together with the fact that such diseases as
scarlet fever and measles have lost much of their former virulence,
has resulted in the appearance of new diseases the assumption
presumably being that nature abhors a vacuum There is, however,
no scientific evidence to support this hypothesis We must at
least be happy that the diseases with which we had to contend not
so very long ago asmajor problems no longer hold the same threat.
At the same time we must be prepared to tackle the newer virus
diseases which are coming more to the fore The fact that vaccination
against poliomyelitis is now being offered to more and more
children and the ever-increasing attention which is being paid to
hygiene, especially hygiene in our schools, is surely evidence
that we are tackling the problem realistically and with every
hope of practical results. As I write this Report we have recently
been made aware of an epidemic of virus influenza in the Par East.
In this connection, active steps are already being taken to prepare
a suitable vaccine,while every country in the western world
has been fully alerted It is by steps such as these, by the
common effort of all peoples and governments, that the virus will
eventually be conquered, We all have our part to play, and all
must play their part
Until comparatively recently it was the custom to record
each year the number of deaths which had been caused by what'were
then known as the "zymotic" diseases. These diseases comprise
8