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VI. PREVALENCE OF AND CONTROL OVER INFECTIOUS
AND OTHER DISEASES
Weather Conditions.
There were no extremes of weather conditions in 1958.
January and February were changeable with some snow and frost
February being the wetter month. March and April were mainly cold, and
April unusually dry.
The su-er, like that of 1957, was generally wet and disappointing.
May was wet and changeable, June the wettest since 1903, July changeable
with a few fine days, August very wet, dull and thundery with little
sunshine, and September was very wet but warmer, with sunshine about
normal.
The months of October, November and December were not remarkable for
weather extremes of any kind. It was changeable with some fog in November
and December, particularly at Christmas time.
Notifications.
A total of 883 notifications of ca.ses of infectious diseases were
received during the year, compared with 1,914 in 1957, the difference
being, in the main, measles notifications. The diagnosis was not
confirmed in two of the notifications.
Table 14 on page 63 shows details of notifications received, together
with age groups. A list of diseases notifiable in the County of London
is shown in Table 17 on page 65.
Cancer.
The number of deaths from cancer of all sites occurring in residents
of the Borough daring the year was 221, being 28 less than last year.
Deaths from lung cancer numbered 62, which is 8 more than in 1957.
The association between cancer of the lung and smoking leaves little
doubt that smoking is a direct cause of lung cancer.
Diphtheria.
Two notifications of Diphtheria were received during the year, one
case being subsequently re-diagnosed as a carrier.