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8
PREVALENCE OF AND CONTROL OVER INFECTIOUS
AND OTHER DISEASES.
SCARLET FEVER.
The number of cases of scarlet fever notified during the year
remained comparatively low, a total of thirty-three, giving an
incidence rate of 0.74 per thousand population. This compares
with a rate of 1.73 for England and Wales.
The majority of cases were very mild and no fatalities
occurred. Nine cases were treated at home and twenty-four were
removed to hospital. There were no 'return' cases.
DIPHTHERIA.
No case of diphtheria occurred in the district during the
year, this being the second occasion only during the past fifty
years of complete freedom from this disease.
The scheme for immunisation progresses smoothly and the
great majority of parents are now accepting immunisation as a
matter of course. We are now recommending it at the age of
seven months. When done so early it is probably advisable to
give a third dose twelve months later. Under the present
scheme children are given the opportunity of receiving a reinforcing
dose at intervals of 3-5 years up to school leaving age.
Under the new National Health Service Act all medical
practitioners providing general medical services in the area have
been given an opportunity to provide services in the scheme of
diphtheria immunisation. This has resulted in a number of
children being done otherwise than at schools or clinics.
The following statistics refer to immunisation carried out
during the year:—
Number of children completing treatment during
the year (pre-school, 559; school, 101) 660
Number of children receiving reinforcing doses 954
Total attendances at clinic 940
During the latter part of the year a special effort was made
to encourage mothers to bring their babies for immunisation in
cases where persuasion by the health visitor had failed. A note
was made of every child aged ten months and older who had
not been immunised and the parents of these babies were circularised
in regard to the importance of immunisation against