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the increase was mainly in cases of influenza of a mild type. The
Regional Officer of the Ministry of National Insurance kindly
arranged for regular figures of local sickness certifications to be
supplied for a time, and although the districts of this Ministry do
not correspond with the Borough boundaries, the information enabled
us to assess in a general way rises and falls in the amount of
sickness in the corresponding periods compared with the previous
year. The epidemic quickly died down but there were six deaths
registered as having been due directly or indirectly to influenza
during the first six weeks of the year.
No confirmed case of Poliomyelitis occurred in 1951.
Of the Poliomyelitis cases noted in the 1950 Annual Report as
still showing residual paralysis, up to date information is as
follows:-
Case notified in 1949:
This patient, now a child of 5 years, is still making progress,
and although there is some paralysis of the right leg, the condition
is improving.
Gases notified in 1950:
Case A - An adult male patient -his condition is more or less
stationary. He wears an instrument to control his dropfoot, and
suffers from some circulatory disturbance. He carries out full-time
work as a lorry driver and finds no difficulty in performing his
duties.
Case B - An adult female patient - developed pulmonary
tuberculosis before she was fully recovered from Poliomyelitis. She
has made a fair recovery but her chest condition prevented further
operative treatment on the left arm, still showing paralysis., She
will probably be able to have this operation later, and meantime she
is to be allowed to take up work.
Case C - A boy now 10 years of age - is still showing signs of
steady improvement.
New Regulations came into force in 1951 concerning the
notification of certain infectious diseases.
The Public Health (Leprosy) Regulations, 1951 required that a
medical practitioner attending, or called on to visit, a person
suffering from Leprosy should notify the Chief Medical Officer of
the Ministry of Health by certificate on a prescribed form. The
local authority was required to supply a copy of the Regulations to
medical practitioners practising within the district and these were
circulated together with a small supply of certificates to be used in
connection therewith, before the operative date, the 22nd June, 1951.
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