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31
DYSENTERY.
Eight patients were notified during the year as suffering from
dysentery. The first two were children from the same address who fell
ill in January. In April the mother, father and three children of a
family succumbed to a Sonne infection. The remaining case was an
adult, a male of 69, who fell ill in June.
FOOD POISONING.
Only one patient was notified as suffering from food poisoning, an
adult whose illness was apparently caused by food consumed out of the
district.
ERYSIPELAS.
Forty notifications were received during the year, but in two the
diagnosis was amended to cellulitis. Sixteen of those suffering were
males. The face was affected in twenty-six patients, a leg in three.
The one case in which the scalp was involved proved fatal. Eleven of
the patients were admitted to an isolation hospital for treatment.
CEREBRO-SPINAL FEVER.
In two of the fifteen cases notified as cerebro-spinal fever the
diagnosis was withdrawn. Four cases fell ill in January, one in
February, then five in March. Two cases occurred in April and one in
July. No case seemed to be associated with any of the others. Two
cases proved fatal. All but one of the cases were treated in hospital,
six in isolation and the others in general hospitals.
ACUTE ANTERIOR POLIOMYELITIS.
Two cases were notified as suffering from acute anterior poliomyelitis
before the occurrence of those cases which were part of the generalised
outbreak to which the country was subjected. In one of these, however,
the diagnosis was later amended to septic arthritis of the hip. The
other was a girl of five who in early April was considered to be suffering
from a mild attack of the infection.
The following is a report of the local incidence of the outbreak
which affected the country:
Poliomyelitis is a disease which only comparatively recently has
developed an epidemic phase. Though sporadic cases are known to
have occurred for many years the greater of the epidemics have occurred
only in this century, more especially in America, Scandinavia and
Australia. The first serious invasion of this country was in 1926.
The incidence was again heavy in 1938.
The fact that the country was likely to be subjected to a severe
invasion this summer was suggested in the early months of the summer
by the fact that the number of notifications even then was much larger
than usual and that the rise had started that much earlier in the year
than the time of the usual seasonal prevalence. Reaching nearly its
peak figure of notifications in the week ending 16th August and remaining