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lowed by a fall passing to extinction. Since the outbreak of 1947, the
country has never been free. The curve of incidence for these years has
been roughly parallel to those of the pre-1947 years. The wave which
reaches its highest in August and September now, however, does not
pass away before it merges into the new rise of the next year. The
weekly average of notifications in England and Wales for January last
year was 30. The lowest incidence was reached in February with a
weekly average notification of 16. Then followed averages of 19 for
each of the next two months; the real rise started in May with an average
of 40 notifications each week.
The first two cases notified in this district last year were really part
of the dying 1951 wave. The first was a man of 25 who fell ill on
January 8th with a non-paralytic attack. Next was a woman of 21 who
fell ill in February with a paralytic attack. There was then an interval
of three months before the first of the cases of the 1952 wave. This was
a man of 32 who fell ill on 7th May with a paralytic attack. On 7th May,
a man of 34 fell ill, also with a paralytic attack. There were no notifications
in the next week. In the week ending 31st May, however, five
succumbed, these being a woman of 34 (with a paralytic attack), a boy
of six (non-paralytic), a woman of 37 (abortive), a boy of seven (nonparalytic)
and his father (abortive). In the next week there were two
more cases: a boy of six (non-paralytic) and a boy of seven months
(paralytic). Although in the next few weeks many patients suffered from
conditions suspected to have been poliomyelitis, in none was the diagnosis
confirmed until a girl of seven fell ill with a paralytic attack on 28th
June. There was another free interval before an adult male fell ill on
11th August with a paralytic attack which proved fatal. A similar period
of freedom was followed by two non-paralytic attacks in the week ending
20th September, a girl of three and a boy of 14, and a paralytic attack
in a boy of six in the following week. The other cases were a paralytic
attack in a girl of five whose illness followed a few days after her tonsils
had been removed in October, and a woman of 22 who fell ill with a
non-paralytic attack in November.
The grouping cf cases in May was quite local. The figures for
England and Waes for the seven weeks from the week ending 19th
April were 23, 29, 24, 21, 37, 37 and 44. The London figures for the
same period were 2, 3, 1, 3, 1, 4 and 2. The Middlesex figures were
larger than usual only because they included these Harrow figures.
Apart from the occurence of illness in father and son, there was no known
association of these cases who lived in different parts of the district.
Apart from this grouping in May, the only other grouping was the
three cases in the weeks ending 20th and 27th September. The district
had only these three cases in September and only one in August, the two
months when the country as a whole was being most severely attacked.
In all, there were 18 cases (11 males and seven females). The
youngest was a boy of seven months who suffered from a paralytic
attack. Eight were children of 10 years of age or under, nine were aged
21 or over. Nine suffered from paralytic attacks, seven from nonparalytic
attacks, and two from abortive attacks.