[Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Chesterfield R.D.C.

  • Chesterfield (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1952
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Chesterfield R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/36 (page 17)
    INFECTIOUS DISEASES. The notifications of infectious diseases show, on the aggre- gate, little change from last year. Measles notifications have increased but whooping cough are down. Two deaths were recorded from whooping cough, both in children under six months. It is noteworthy that no deaths have been recorded from measles or scarlet fever, and once more there have been no confirmed cases of diphtheria. Apart from this satisfactory state of affairs, there are few complications and sequelae which used to be so common in measles, scarlet fever, etc. Most patients exhibit the symptonis and go on to an uninterrupted convalescence. Of course, if symptoms of complications occur, there are always the sulpha drugs and antibiotics to come to the rescue, but even if these were not available, I feel sure that the disas«ters that attended an attack of measles or scarlet fever thirty years ago would now be very much reduced. In fact, the individual seems to have more natural resistance to the complications. This, surely, is a justifi- cation of the slow but sure improvement in environment and health education that has been going on for the past thirty years, which, perhaps, is shown up in an even more striking manner in the reduction in infant deaths. In spite of the improvement, constant watchfulness and care are still necessary. Since the inauguration of the National Health Service the Hospital Boards have had a tendency to rather push the ordinary infectious disease into the background as being of little or no importance. Recent outbreaks of diphtheria in certain urban districts^ in the Midlands, where the figures for the immunised population are no different from the rest of the country, would seem to indicate that there are factors in the incidence which are still unknown and, given certain sets of conditions, the infections may again flare up. DIPHTHERIA IMMUNISATIONS. Number of children who completed the full immunisation in the Authority s area during the year Under 1 year 1 2 21 371 138 3 65 4 5-9 10-14 41 253 98 course of 1952 Total 987