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62
SECTION F.
PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER INFECTIOUS
AND OTHER DISEASES.
GENERAL.
A total of 1,033 cases of infectious diseases (excluding
tuberculosis) were notified, as against 624 during 1954, and this
state of affairs was largely brought about by the considerable
increase in the incidence of measles during the year under discussion.
Although the number of cases of this disease was large, the
vast majority of them were uncomplicated and did not give rise
to any undue alarm.
Compared with some other places in the country, we must be
considered fortunate to have had only 14 confirmed cases of
infantile paralysis, of which only 5 were paralytic, but, unfortunately,
there was 1 death. In addition, 11 further cases were
notified but on investigation none of these could be confirmed.
There was, therefore a total of 25 cases under suspicion during the
course of the year.
One hundred and twenty-four cases of Whooping Cough. 51 of
Scarlet Fever, 14 of Dysentery and 4 of Food Poisoning came to
light during the year and these, in conjunction with the cases of
measles and infantile paralysis, accounted for most of the infectious
disease notifications received during 1955, but statistical details of
notifiable infectious diseases will be found in Tables V and VI in the
Appendix.
ACUTE ANTERIOR POLIOMYELITIS.
The first case of this disease to occur arose in the spring and
was the only one which eventually proved fatal. No further
notifications were received until July and this case was not confirmed,
but towards the end of August notifications were being
received fairly regularly until the end of October, after which there
was a lull throughout November. In December an unexpected
development was the notification of a further 4 cases. 3 of which
were confirmed.
Further analysing these cases, we find that 3 of the 5 paralytic
ones were of the Bulbar type, that 9 cases were non-paralytic, and
that of the total of 25 notifications received during the year.
11 eventually proved to be other illnesses.
An unsually high percentage of the paralytic cases were bulbar
in type, but from what I can glean from various sources, this seems
to have been a fairly general experience throughout the country
during the recent outbreak.
Exclusion of contacts, except in the case of school children, is
not a routine automatic procedure and a number of rather difficult
decisions on the necessity or otherwise for this action had to be