View report page

60
of those suffering from scarlet fever, german measles, mumps and chicken
pox are not excluded. The apparently well contacts of cases of measles
can continue to attend school though contacts under five years of age or
contacts who are suffering from coughs, colds, chills or red eyes are
excluded, though not if they are known for certain to have had the disease.
A child under seven years of age who is a contact of whooping cough
should be excluded for 21 days from the date of the occurence of the last
case in the house unless he is known with certainty to have had the disease.
These recommendations apply to children attending day schools. More
stringent standards are advisable about the return to school of children
at boarding schools who have been in contact with a case of infection
during the school holidays.
Disinfection
The proposal for the erection of a new disinfector had to be deferred
because of the restriction on capital expenditure. Consideration was
given to the question of whether a less costly plant in which disinfection
was brought about by a chemical rather than by steam would meet the
needs of the district. While this would be effective against surface
contamination and would be efficient for most of the work being undertaken
in this district, it would not afford the same measure of security in
some other cases as steam treatment does. Unless then before the new
disinfector is erected a plant has been devised which enables both forms of
treatment to be carried out, the plant to be built will provide disinfection
by steam.
DIPHTHERIA
Incidence
In none of the patients admitted to hospital suspected to be suffering
from diphtheria was the diagnosis confirmed. The district has, therefore,
now been free from diphtheria for six years.
In the country as a whole the number of notifications continues
to fall, there being only 155 in 1955 compared with 962 in 1950 and an
average of fifty five thousand in the years 1933 to 1942 before immunisation
started. 1954 was the first year in which the number of deaths in the
country could be recorded by a single figure. There was a slight rise to
13 in 1955. The outbreak that occurred that year showed once more that
diphtheria infection can gain momentum if the proportion of unimmunised
persons in a population is high.
During the year 2,336 children were treated for the first time, 1,109
by general medical practitioners and 1,227 at infant welfare centres.
The number of births notified was 2,791. It is estimated that at the end
of the year 62.1 per cent, of children under five years of age were protected
and 93.9 per cent. of children aged five to fifteen years.
A.P.T. continues to be the antigen most used to immunise children
against diphtheria, either alone or combined with pertussis vaccine. It is
fortunate that each of these preparation when combined seems to boost
the effect of the other and the combined preparation has been accepted
as the preparation of choice, being given at earlier ages than A.P.T
alone because of the desirability of affording protection against pertussis