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61
In view of the ever present potential risk it is the practice
of the department to urge the necessity for frequent vaccination
of all those members of the staff who would be especially exposed
to the risk of contracting smallpox, should an outbreak occur
in this district. Owing to the difficulty of differentiating smallpox
from chickenpox and other diseases, any weakening of the
link between the Medical Officers of Health, General Practitioners
and Hospitals, would increase the risk of the spread of
smallpox. I am happy to say this link is locally a strong one.
All contacts of smallpox who were residents in the Borough
were kept under surveillance for the necessary period, and no
cases developed.
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, 1950:—
Age at 31st December. 1950 Under 1 1 to 4 5 to 14 15 or over Total
Number Vaccinated 286 250 33 35 604
Number Re-Vaccinated 6 24 191 221
ACUTE ANTERIOR POLIOMYELITIS.
Fourteen notifications of this disease were received during
the year, seven of which proved to be paralytic and seven nonparalytic.
Five cases were removed to hospital and nine were home
nursed.
There were no deaths from this disease recorded in the area.
Months during which cases were notified:—
June 2 August 6 October 2
July 1 September 2 November 1
In view of the large and widespread epidemic of infantile
paralysis which occurred in the country in the latter part of the
year, we were indeed fortunate to have only 14 cases, of which
half were paralytic. Last year's outbreak was distinctive in that
many widely separated districts had a large number of cases
leaving extensive intervening areas relatively unaffected.
Critical analysis of this peculiar distribution would rather lead
to the conclusion that, spread out over the country, there are at
certain times of the year, quite virulent foci of infection. If
we take as an example two neighbouring towns A and B of
similar type and of more or less equal population and find that
in A, there are a large number of cases, while in B only two
cases occur, the reasonable inference appears to be that a large
number of people in town A have come into contact with the
focus of infection in that town, whereas in town B only those