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87
The weekly notification rates over the four quarters were 2.3, 3.1,
18 and 3.4.
The type of illness remains mild and this infection now causes very
few deaths. The last fatal case contracted in this district was in 1937.
Very small numbers of sufferers are now removed to hospital, there
being only 3 last year.
Although secondary infection so rarely occurs, even in those households
where precautionary measures to prevent the spread of infection
fall short of what might be desired, there were this year 9 households in
which some members of the family succumbed. In two of these there
were two secondary cases, in the others one each. In all instances the
primary case was nursed at home. In three of these the infection had
already been passed on to the other child by the time the illness in the
first was recognised, as in two instances the period separating the onset of
illness was only about twenty-four hours, and in the third instance the
illness of the first was not diagnosed until the other child fell ill some three
weeks later. In the other households though, including both where
there were two secondary cases, having regard to the interval separating
the onsets of illness of the primary and of the secondary cases, it is probable
that had the first case in each household been removed to hospital, the
other children in the houses would not have suffered an attack.
There were no return cases this year.
Although it is now quite exceptional for there to be a real outbreak
of scarlet fever amongst pupils at a school in which it is thought the
infection had been contracted at the school, groupings of cases keep
cropping up which suggest that school attendance might have been
responsible for some at least of the cases. In July, seven pupils at Vaughan
Road Junior School went down with scarlet fever over a period of three
weeks, though in fact these cases were distributed over four classes.
There were similar though smaller groupings at four other schools.
SMALLPOX
Although it is quite exceptional these days for anyone in this country
to be suffering from smallpox, most local authorities in every year have a
certain amount of work to do in arranging for the surveillance of persons
who have come into the country by air or sea and who are still in the
incubation period of the infection.
Vaccination. During the year, 2,321 persons living in the district
were vaccinated against smallpox for the first time. Of these, 1,720 were
under one year of age, and 183 were over one but under two years of age.
747 persons were re-vaccinated. 2,910 babies were born during the year,
The number of vaccinatons of those under one year of age was therefore
59 per cent of the births. Of those under one year of age who were
vaccinated, 755 were treated at the infant welfare centres.