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69
of ordinary measles, but at five schools there were no cases of the ordinary
type. Although there were cases throughout the whole year, most
occurred in the summer term.
Influenza
The country was almost free from influenza in the early part of the
year, there being only a localised focus of Virus A influenza at East
Suffolk. In February there were scattered outbreaks due to Virus A
but mild in character. March saw a spread of influenza and of influenzalike
infection to various parts of the country, including the outer London
area. In February and March influenza was responsible for the deaths
of six inhabitants of this district, mostly elderly persons. Of the 67
notifications of pneumonia received during the year, 12 related to the
influenzal type.
TUBERCULOSIS
In the years before the second world war the position in regard to
tuberculosis in this country seemed quite hopeful and some were
sufficiently optimistic to visualise the disease ceasing within the then
forseeable future to be a public health menace. The 46,000 notifications
in 1939 were 4,000 less than in the preceding year. The numbers, however,
rose each year to reach 54,000 in 1943. The reasons for these
increases were not known; but the 1944 figure was almost the same as
that of 1943. Then followed a fall in 1945, this being succeeded by
another. At this stage, however, the figures started to increase again up
to 1948. From the peak figure of 52,576 in this year, there was a gradual
fall for a few years bringing the 1953 figure back to the level of that of
1939. Each of the next two years saw a welcome much larger fall to a
figure of 38,000 in 1955.
The picture of the numbers of those dying from tuberculosis followed
a very different pattern. As contrasted with an average of 25,000 deaths
from pulmonary tuberculosis for the years 1931 to 1939, the average figure
for the years 1940 to 1944 was under 22,000. After falls in 1945 and 1946,
the numbers rose to a peak figure of 20,156 in 1947. Each year since then
though has seen a very marked drop with the result that in 1955 the
number of deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis was only 5,837.
The difference in the behaviour of the numbers of new cases and the
numbers of deaths is thought to be due to a number of reasons. The fall
in the number of deaths was considered to be partly and perhaps largely
the effect of chemotherapy. Although for so many years much effort
had been devoted to discovering a preparation which had a direct
effect on the tubercle bacillus, it was not until recent years that any was
discovered. The position now, of course, is that there is not only one,
hut a number. It may be that the increase in the number of notifications
>s not so much the result of an increase in the incidence of the disease,
out is merely that the vastly improved technique for earlier diagnosis
's resulting in cases being detected that much earlier.
Although there is this growing optimism that the disease might be
brought under control within the next few decades, and although there
have been such marked strides in the last few years, the fact remains that
in 1955 tuberculosis caused 67 per cent, of all the deaths due to infections in