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22.
Infectious Diseases.
Incidence.— Full particulars of all notifiable infectious
diseases, arranged according to disease, ward and
age will be found in Table IV. page 29.
The number of cases of infectious diseases notified
during 1929 was 2,755 compared with 3,806 in 1928 and
2,055 in 1927.
Excluding measles 1,807 cases were notified in 1929
compared with 1,707 in 1928.
The diphtheria notifications increased from 359 in
1928 to 370 in 1929 and the number of cases of scarlet
fever rose from 416 to 489. The notifications of influenzal
and primary pneumonia were 345 in number in 1929,
compared with 297 in 1928. There was also an increase
in the figures for tuberculosis, namely 364 during 1929
compared with 333 during 1928 (see page 56). Erysipelas
notifications numbered 78 in 1929 compared with 81 in
the previous year, and cases of infantile diarrhoea decreased
from 60 during 1928 to 36 during 1929. The
number of cases of infectious diseases of the nervous
system, of which 9 were notified in 1928 rose to 15 in
1929. These included 5 cases of cerebro-spinal meningitis,
5 of encephalitis lethargica (sleepy sickness) and
5 of poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis).
Mortality from Infectious Disease.—There were
511 deaths from notifiable diseases in 1929 compared
with 400 in 1928. The increase was due to the large
number of cases of pneumonia which resulted in 91
more deaths in 1929 than in 1928. and to the number of
deaths from tuberculosis which were 26 more in 1929
than in the previous year.
Whereas there were 15 deaths from measles during
1928 there were 10 in 1929, all of children under 5 years
of age.
Ten deaths were due to diphtheria in 1929, compared
with 13 in 1928, while 3 persons died of scarlet
fever compared with two in 1928.