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were discharged from hospital in four weeks and a further 5.8
per cent. in five weeks.
It is interesting to record that practically the whole of the
patients admitted to hospital with diphtheria had not been
immunised and that in the few cases which had, the attacks were
invariably mild. As will be seen below, the hospital helped,
during 1934, towards the ideal of a highly immunised community
and 460 immunising injections were given.
One of the difficulties which the staff had to contend with
during the year was the inadequate heating; of D block, the new
cubicle block. During the winter months the temperature often
fell to 45°F. Special difficulty was met with in the treatment of
broncho-pneumonia which requires a temperature of 65° to 70°.
However, the question of the heating of D block is under review
and it is hoped that, shortly, the present disability will be removed.
Reference must also be made to the plague of mosquitoes
which infested the hospital from July to October. This caused
a great deal of annoyance to patients and staff and few escaped
without being bitten to a greater or a lesser extent. Frequently,
within 24 hours of admission, patients were so severely bitten on
faces and hands as to resemble cases of measles. Sleep was
interfered with and even the provision of mosquito-nets proved
of little avail.
The accommodation at the Hospital, so greatly improved in
1931, is being used to the full to provide nursing facilities as near
to the ideal as possible.
Diphtheria.
During the year, 374 patients were admitted, compared with
176 during the preceding year. Of this number 304 were faucial,
42 nasal, 5 laryngeal, 3 faucial and laryngeal and 20 faucial and
nasal. Fifty-two patients remained under treatment at the end
of 1933.
A severe form of the disease was prevalent and 17
hæmorrhagic cases were admitted. These cases are not
hæmorrhagic from the start but become so as a result of prolonged
toxaemia in cases of infection with the diphtheria gravis