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68
It was not until the end of the year that the County Council's arrangements
for supplying general medical practitioners with pertussis vaccine,
either alone or combined with A.P.T. the protective against diphtheria,
came into operation. Nevertheless for years many children have been
given this protection by their own doctors. It is known that 1,001
children were treated in this way by the combined preparation. It is
probable that many more than this were in fact treated. At the infant
welfare centres 1,183 were treated with the combined preparation so that
during the year at least 2,184 children received protective inoculation
against pertussis.
Almost all the sufferers in the country as a whole in 1955 were
under fifteen years of age. Nearly ten per cent, were under one year of
age, about half being between one and four and the other forty per cent,
being between 5 and 14 years of age. The fatality rate was 0-11. Twothirds
of the deaths occurred amongst those of under one year of age,
one-third of these being under three months of age. Although many
of the children of these ages are not going to be protected by active
immunisation, the growing practice of inoculating children against whooping
cough should, by protecting the older children, reduce the likelihood
of the introduction by his older brothers and sisters of this complaint
into the house of an infant.
PUERPERAL INFECTION
Only one person delivered in this district was notified as suffering
from puerperal infection, the result of a streptococcal infection.
OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM
One infant was notified as suffering from ophthalmia neonatorum.
The trouble was slight and recovery rapid and complete.
NON-NOTIFIABLE INFECTIONS
Knowledge of the prevalence of some of the infections which are
not notifiable in this district is obtained from intimations received from
the head teachers about the absence of children from school.
Chicken Pox
896 intimations of chicken pox were received from the schools
during the year. The first term was that in which there was most cases,
when at one school there were 170 children and at another 127. The illness
was very general though throughout the whole year, and in the summer
term one school had 82 cases and in the last term another had 90.
Mumps
Although there were small numbers of cases at a few schools in the
spring and in the summer terms, 114 of the 295 cases occurred amongst
the pupils of one school in the last term and 78 at another.
German Measles
This infection was rather more common in 1956 than usual, although
the ordinary form of measles was not very prevalent. Many of the
cases occurred amongst the pupils at schools at which there were cases