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Scarlet Fever.
Thirty-four cases of mild Scarlet Fever were notified,
thirty-three of which were of school age. No deaths
occurred and no "return" cases. Twenty-two of the cases
notified were removed to an infectious diseases hospital for
treatment and the remainder were treated at home.
Diphtheria.
No cases of diphtheria were notified, for the first time
in the years for which records are available.
This is a particularly gratifying result from the intensive
work which has been going on during recent years to protect
children against this deadly and weakening disease.
The success obtained by immunisation requires to be fought
for with renewed vigour, because parents are now unfamiliar with
the disease.
Each new generation of infants requires to be immunised
early, and as the process is voluntarily accepted, it is necessary
to keep up continual propaganda in order to convince parents, in
the absence of the disease, of the necessity for protecting their
children by inoculation.
Intensive work is continued to immunize the school and
pre-school population against diphtheria, and the table on the
following page shows the stage reached by the en d of 1948.