View report page

63
made during the year, especially in view of the number of cases
arising which were often the subject of quite considerable delay
before a definite diagnosis of acute poliomyelitis could be
confirmed.
There is one other feature of this disease to which attention
should be drawn, and that is. that only 6 of the 14 confirmed cases
referred to children of school age. Of the remaining 8, 4 were
adults and 4 under school age. This tends to confirm a national
tendency for the disease to attack the adult to a greater extent and
therefore to make the designation of " infantile paralysis " somewhat
of a misnomer.
DIPHTHERIA.
For the fifth year in succession, no case occurred in the
Borough, and the continued very low incidence of this disease in the
country as a whole is one of the major triumphs of preventive
medicine.
The present position with regard to immunisation against this
disease is summarised in the following figures which have been
supplied by the County Medical Officer.
Of the children resident in the area who were born since 1941.
a total of 649 received primary inoculations and 1.046 received
reinforcing inoculations during 1955.
A total of 10.173 children under the age of 15 years have
completed a course of immunisation at some time prior to
31st December. 1955.
DYSENTERY.
This disease continues to be endemic and although generally
of a mild type 3 cases out of the 14 notified were sufficiently bad to
necessitate admission to hospital.
FOOD POISONING.
Only 4 cases of food poisoning were notified during the year
and in 3 of them the causative organism was discovered. On paper
these figures are very good, but the fact remains that one must
admit there is no justification for complacency. It is inevitable
that a considerable number of such cases will never come to the
notice of a medical practitioner and it is. therefore, necessary to
state that the actual number of cases occurring probably bears little
relation to the number notified. It appears very desirable to draw
attention to this point in order to encourage the highest possible
standard of kitchen hygiene in all walks of life, otherwise, with so
few " official" cases to report, there might be a tendency to
minimise the importance of those very vital operations.
MEASLES.
The year 1955 produced a large epidemic of measles and in
Bromley 760 cases were notified, but it is a commentary on the