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15
OVERCROWDING.
Although there were no definite complaints of overcrowding,
there can be little doubt that it existed, from the number
of applications for Council Houses.
It will probably be many years before the needs of the
town are fully satisfied in this respect.
May I take the opportunity of expressing approval, from
the Public Health aspect, of the different types of houses
erected by the Council on the Honeybun Estate.
NOTIFIABLE INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
There were notified during the year 220 cases of Infectious
Disease. Examination of Table 2 will show that three diseases
accounted for 207 of these, viz., diphtheria 83, scarlet fever 78,
tuberculosis 46. The corresponding figures for last year were
diphtheria 110, scarlet fever 42, and tuberculosis 36.
DIPHTHERIA.
During 1921 there were 83 cases of diphtheria notified,
there were 110 in 1920. The epidemic fortunately was not of
a severe type. Medical practitioners are now recognising that
it is often desirable to inject much larger doses of anti-toxin
than heretofore, and they wisely do not wait for the result of the
swab examination if satisfied that they are dealing with a
case of diphtheria.
We have recently had from the Medical Officer of Health,
of Bristol a valuable memorandum on the subject in which it
is stated that, when the City of Bristol was visited by a very
virulent form of diphtheria, most of the cases proved hopeless
if left untreated for more than 48 hours, it was then found
necessary to inject enormous doses as much as 20,000 units
immediately on seeing the patient, and to inject the
serum into the muscles of the outer side of the thigh, the
absorbtion by the subcutaneous method being too slow to be
effective.
Dr. Peters, of the Ham Hospital, Bristol, has given particulars
of his testing his nursing staff to the number of 135, by
comparatively simple methods to ascertain whether any are
susceptible to diphtheria so that they can be inoculated at
once, a great desideratim for schools, large staffs and communities.