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The significance of these findings lies in the fact—the
importance of which has been recognised only within recent years
—that erysipelas and scarlet fever are both due to the same type
of organism. These "streptococci" may be very widespread in the
throats of apparently healthy individuals, and while many escape
with mild and ill-defined infections, others develop a disease which
can be given a name. In both diseases increasing hospitalization
has done little to reduce the incidence, but in both this factor has
been accompanied by a significant reduction in the proportion of
fatal cases. Whether these two features stand to each other in
the relation of cause and effect is a matter which cannot be dealt
with here.
ENCEPHALITIS LETHARGICA.
No cases of this disease were notified during the year. There
were six deaths of patients who had been notified in previous years
as having contracted the disease.
ACUTE POLIOMYELITIS.
There was a slight increase in this condition during the year
1937. The number of cases notified was 18, of whom 13 were
males and 5 females. This gives a case rate of 0.07 per 1,000 of
the population. The number of cases notified during the year
1936 was 3.
No definite connection between the cases was traced in the
year 1937.
Most of the cases were notified in the second half of the
sccond quarter and in the third quarter of the year. The ages
of the patients ranged from 11 months to 17 years in the case of
males, and from two-and-a-half to seven years in the case of
females.
Two of the patients died, but in neither case was death due
to the disease notified. In one case death was due to pneumonia
and in the other to meningitis.
The most recent enquiries show that three of the patients
have apparently recovered, and the remainder are in various
stages of recovery either in hospital or attending hospital for
appropriate treatment.
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