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48
SECTION F.
SECTION F. PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER,
INFECTIOUS AND OTHER DISEASES.
Statistical details regarding notifiable diseases are shown in
Tables IX. and X. in the Appendix. There were no serious
epidemics during the year.
SMALLPOX.
Contacts of Smallpox imported into the country were kept
under surveillance for the necessary period, and no cases
developed. It was not found necessary to undertake mass
vaccination, but, as a precaution, all those members of the Public
Health Staff who were unprotected were re-vaccinated.
As the Council will be aware, compulsory vaccination passed
out of being on the National Health Act being put into operation
in July, 1948, and with probably not more than 40% of the
population now vaccinated, one cannot help wondering what
may be in store for us should this country have the misfortune
to be visited by a virulent form of smallpox on anything like a
large scale; the medical resources of the country would be
stretched to the limit to undertake the inevitable demand for
vaccination which would arise.
Vaccination has become unpopular owing to the publicity
which has been given to the occasional unfortunate incidents
which have followed it. These complications very rarely arise
when a baby is vaccinated before the age of six months, hence
the great need for propaganda to get vaccination done in infancy
and not wait until the child is older, when it may become a
matter of urgency and at the same time might, in rare instances,
not be such an innocuous operation.
VACCINATION.
The following figures, which have been furnished by the
County Medical Officer, show the number of persons who were
vaccinated against smallpox during the year 1949 :—
Age at 31st December, 1949 Under 1 1 to 4 5 to 14 15 or over Total
Number Vaccinated . 258 182 15 17 472
Number Re-Vaccinated — 2 27 115 144
ANTERIOR POLIOMYELITIS.
In common with the rest of the country, we had a minor
outbreak of infantile paralysis in the summer and autumn of
1949. 12 suspected cases were admitted to the Lennard Hospital,
six of which were confirmed and notified, and six were not con-