View report page

60
SECTION F.
PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER
INFECTIOUS AND OTHER DISEASES.
Statistical details of notifiable diseases are shown in
Tables V and VI in the Appendix.
There were no serious epidemics during the year.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
The control of infectious diseases necessitates prompt
exchange of information between the authorities concerned and
it is a matter for gratitude that during the course of the year
the liaison between the Medical Officer of Health and the
Hospitals has been built up and strengthened. By virtue of
arrangements made during the course of the year, the Hospitals
keep me informed of any case of infectious or suspected infectious
disease which may occur in institutions under their control. For
our part we keep the Hospital authorities apprised of all
important developments on the Infectious Disease front, thereby
enabling them to be on the look out for the particular infectious
diseases which may be rampant at any particular time. These
arrangements would be especially valuable should an outbreak
of a serious Infectious Disease, for example, smallpox or enteric
fever occur.
SMALLPOX.
This disease is no longer endemic in the British Isles but
owing to the modern speed of travel there is always a risk of it
being imported into this country. It is perfectly possible for
a person to be a contact of smallpox, for example in India, to
fly to this country and to develop the first signs of illness after
being here for several days.
If such a sequence of events happened and the patient had
been partially immune to smallpox, he might well be insufficiently
ill to consult a doctor. In such circumstances, the disease
could be spread to a large number of persons before its presence
had been suspected, particularly if the population as a whole
were not immune. In view of this it will be clear that constant
vigilance is necessary on the part of all concerned, if the importation
of smallpox on a big scale is to be avoided, every day's delay
in the control of movement of a case increases the danger of an
epidemic. As the Council are aware, there were two or three
instances of smallpox being brought into this country during the
past year, but they must all be considered to have been very well
controlled.