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Only eleven cases were notified here in this last year, six women, four
men and one child. In all cases the face was affected. The lesion spread
from the eye in the case of the child and from the nose in another of the
patients. Two sufferers were removed to hospital. There were no deaths.
MENINGOCOCCAL INFECTION
For many years menigoccal meningitis (cerebrospinal fever) was
notifiable. Because the same organism could cause reactions in other
parts of the body, the more general condition of meningococcal infection
became notifiable. While it is many years since there were any large
numbers of cases in the district in any one year, it is usual to have a few.
Many patients are admitted to hospital suspected to be suffering from this
condition but later, as a result of laboratory findings, are found to be
suffering from aseptic menigitis or some other condition not due to the
meningococcus. The corrected number of notifications this last year was one.
This was a boy of two who fell ill in March. Post mortem examination of
a child of nine months who died in April showed she had suffered from
meningoocccal septicaemia.
ACUTE ANTERIOR POLIOMYELITIS
1961 proved to be a year of much higher incidence of infection
throughout the country than the previous year. This higher rate though
was primarily due to the occurrence of a number of cases in a number of
large towns rather than to the diffuse distribution throughout the country.
The town most heavily involved was Hull in October. In 1960 in not a
single week had there been as many as twenty cases. By contrast the
weekly average even as early as May, was nineteen and the figure remained
the same throughout June and July. It rose to twenty-two in August and
to twenty-six in September. There was a sharp rise in October with a
weekly average of sixty-nine. The peak incidence was in the week ending
October 21st when there were ninety-four cases. After that there was a
sharp fall to a weekly average of forty-five in November and sixteen in
December. There were only seven cases in the week ending December
23rd and in the week ending December 30th. The corrected figure of
notifications for the whole year was 946.
Locally the district remained free from infection, the only patient
who suffered having contracted his illness while abroad on holiday.
Immunisation. Active immunisation against a number of diseases
can be brought about by the injection of the organisms causing those
diseases or, in some cases, of something from those organisms. In most
instances where the organisms have been used, these have been killed
before injection. In others, the living organisms are used, but these have
usually been attenuated.