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9
The following extract from the monthly bulletin of the
Ministry of Health on the recent trends of diphtheria is worthy
of note, showing as it does, the remarkable progress in the control
of diphtheria due to immunisation :—
"Almost 10,000 persons died from diphtheria in England
and Wales in 1901; 32 in 1951 (provisional figure). From
being one of the most serious causes of death of children in
this country, diphtheria has now fallen to a position of
numerical insignificance.
It is to be noted that of the total reduction in the
mortality from diphtheria during the past half century by far
the greatest part has taken place in the last ten years, the
period of large scale immunisation; and that during these
ten years there had been a sudden and enormous reduction
in the incidence of notified cases as well as deaths.
The situation is now being reached—a situation scarcely
dreamed of in 1940 when the immunisation campaign
started—where the eradication of diphtheria as an indigenous
disease in this country can be foreseen as a very real possibility
within the next few years, provided there is no slackening
in the immunisation efforts that have been so dramatically
successful in the past 10 years. Complacency resulting
from what has already been achieved or loss of interest or
of confidence in immunisation, may mean that diphtheria
will go on occurring endemically and epidemically in this
country indefinitely, with the ever present risk of a return to
high mortality; but a vigorously continued immunisation
programme, combined with existing methods of epidemic
control, may free us entirely from the disease except for the
occasionally imported case
In previous reports, details have been given showing the
rapid decline in the number of notifications and deaths from
diphtheria since the immunisation campaign got under way in
1941. The following table shows the total number of corrected
notifications and deaths for England and Wales during the
eight vears 1944-1951 :—
Year
1944
1945
1946
1947
1948
1949
1950
1951
Deaths
934
722
472
244
156
84
49
34*
Corrected Notifications
23,199
18,596
11,986
5,609
3,575
1,890
962
699*
* Provisional