View report page

106
best weather giving the highest number of cases. For a while, no really
effective steps could be taken to avoid spread of infection. This position
changed here with the introduction in 1956 of arrangements for inoculating
certain sections of the population against it to acquire active immunity.
The smaller number of cases which occurred in 1958 offer hope that the
vaccine is having its effect in reducing the general incidence.
In regard to those infections due to food, there has been no real
improvement. To what extent the increased number of notifications
received is due to a real increase in prevalence or to a rise in the number
of those notified it is not possible to say. The improved laboratory
facilities and the greater attention being paid to these infections would
lead to the detection and notification of many cases which before would
not have been recognised. It is quite certain that the numbers notified
are only a proportion of the true incidence. One reason for a real increase
would be the continuation after the war of the habits of communal
feeding which started during the war. In these circumstances, a lapse
in hygiene could result in many persons being infected ; a similar lapse
in a household by that same cook would affect only one or two. The
enteric cases are mostly those due to paratyphoid infection. Most of
these have been contracted abroad. The dramatic increase in the notification
of cases of dysentery in 1958 was almost wholly due to a school
infection which smouldered for weeks. Much of the trouble from this
infection is spread at schools, being taken home by the pupils. Food
poisoning is a different matter. With the many and varied sources of the
food poisoning organisms, it will need much more and continuing effort
to educate those dealing with food stuffs to bring to an end this complaint.
Any risk from the lowering of standards or a lapse in technique could be
immensely reduced by the provision of adequate cold storage facilities.
The figures for these five years which probably compare very favourably
with those of any district in the country of comparable size, are
partly the result of those in the laboratories who have prepared preparations
to ward-off complaints, partly the result of the success of other
technicians who give the doctors additional weapons in treatment or
earlier diagnosis, partly the chance that in some of the years the weather
conditions in the summers were sufficiently bad to prevent the spread of
poliomyelitis and were such that conditions were not favourable in the
winter to the SDread of the virus of influenza or for promoting fog and
smog.
On top of all that though, for this district must be added the work
done to keep high the environmental state of the district and the
educational work to enlist the help of those who have their own contribution
to make, whether it is by having their children inoculated or by
themselves avoiding polluting the atmosphere.