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period is over, but it makes one anxious as the community is insufficiently
protected against Small Pox, although one has no difficulty
in persuading the contacts to be vaccinated or re-vaccinated.
Scarlet Fever.
The number of Scarlet Fever cases notified was 350, of which
307 were admitted to Hospital. Only 3 deaths occurred. Scarlet
Fever has changed in character during the past 20 years, from
being a disease of considerable severity to one of comparative
mildness, and this accounts for the increased number of cases.
A case is admitted to the Hospital, and upon enquiry into the
source of infection one often finds another member of the family
has had a mild attack, which has not been diagnosed. An adult
was recently admitted to the Isolation Hospital who had such a
mild attack that the patient was not diagnosed as suffering from
Scarlet Fever until three weeks after the early symptoms and was
discovered to be desquamating. In the meantime this patient had
been travelling to business in overcrowded trains and probably
spreading infection.
No use has been made of the Schick and Dick tests in Diphtheria
and Scarlet Fever.
Diphtheria.
337 cases of Diphtheria were notified, with 21 deaths, as
against 2-16 cases with 12 deaths in 1925. 330 cases were treated
in Hospital, and for those cases treated at home the Corporation
provided antitoxin free to all medical practitioners in the Borough
for the patients who were unable to afford the cost. Free bacteriological
examination of " swabs " from the nose and throat of
suspicious cases and contacts are made for medical practitioners.
The majority of practitioners take full advantage of this service,
and it is only when they neglect to do so that serious cases are
admitted, with unfortunate results, as the early administration of
antitoxin is a sure remedy for the disease.
Enteric Fever (Typhoid and Para-Typhoid).
Seven cases were notified, of which 6 were treated in hospital.
No deaths occurred. All the cases were contracted outside the
Borough. One of the cases was a youth who had been visiting
a relative in a country district—the relative being later found to
be a carrier of the disease.