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53
DIPHTHERIA AND IMMUNISATION.
Once again, and for the sixth consecutive year, 1 am thankful
to be able to report a complete absence of this disease from our
community. The immunisation campaign against this illness
appears to have been wonderfully successful in the past, but with
the development of immunisation procedures against other diseases,
and the publicity given them, it is sincerely to be hoped that no
one will forget to have their children immunised against a disease
which has not yet been stamped out of the country entirely and
could still give rise to a serious epidemic if proper precautions are
not taken.
The present position with regard to immunisation against this
disease is summarised in the following figures which have been
furnished by the County Medical Officer.
Of the children resident in the area who were born since 1942,
a total of 789 received primary inoculations and 871 received
reinforcing inoculations during 1956.
A total of 10,816 children under the age of 15 years have
completed a course of immunisation at some time prior to
31st December, 1956.
DYSENTERY.
This is a condition which is causing a good deal more trouble
than formerly. 70 cases were notified during the year as against
14 last year, but only 2 were sufficiently severe to need hospital
treatment. Generally speaking, the illness is of a mild character
and a great number must inevitably never receive any medical
attention, this combined with the fact that in an outbreak there
always appear to be a large number of symptomless carriers makes
control by ordinary public health measures extremely difficult as
there must always be so many unsuspected sources of infection.
An exhortation to hand cleanliness is probably the best single
piece of advice that can be given in our efforts to eradicate this
very annoying complaint.
FOOD POISONING.
Only 12 cases were notified to the department during the
course of the year, and, of these, 3 were sufficiently severe to
necessitate hospital admission. In a town of this size it is difficult
to believe that this condition was limited to such small numbers
and one would like to think that such was indeed the case, but it
would only be self deception not to acknowledge that there must
in reality have been many more cases. In point of fact, many
probable cases have such short lived symptoms that they never come
to the notice of the medical profession despite the fact that for a
few hours the symptoms can be most distressing.