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SECTION G.—PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL
OVER, INFECTIOUS AND OTHER DISEASES.
During the year there were 898 cases of infectious disease notified
compared with 344 in 1956 and 1,074 in 1955. The increase over 1956
was almost entirely due to the high incidence of measles.
The following infectious diseases are notifiable to the Medical
Officer of Health of the Borough:—
Smallpox
Cholera
Diphtheria (including Membranous Croup)
Erysipelas
Scarlet Fever
Typhus
Enteric or Typhoid Fever
Relapsing Fever
Tuberculosis (all forms)
Ophthalmia Neonatorum
Malaria
Dysentery
Acute Primary Pneumonia
Acute Influenzal Pneumonia
Puerperal Pyrexia
Measles
Whooping Cough
Meningococcal Infection
Acute Poliomyelitis-Paralytic
Acute Poliomyelitis-Non-Paralytic
Acute Encephalitis-Infective
Acute Encephalitis-Post Infectious
Food Poisoning
Plague
Para-typhoid Fevers
Leprosy is notifiable direct to the Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry
of Health.
SMALLPOX.
No case of smallpox was notified in the Borough during the year
but all Health Authorities were warned by the Minister of Health in
June to be on the alert as the result of three cases of smallpox occurring
in the Borough of Tottenham. This information was transmitted to the
general medical practitioners in the district to assist them in cases of
illness in which a diagnosis of smallpox was suspected.
In the Ministry of Health's memorandum on vaccination against
smallpox it is recommended that all Public Health Officers likely to deal
at short notice with cases of smallpox should be regularly re-vaccinated
at not more than yearly intervals. During the year thirteen members of
the Public Health Department staff, including clerical staff, were vaccinated
or re-vaccinated.
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