DISEASES ON WANE

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30267, 21 October 1963, Page 15

DISEASES ON WANE

40 Per Cent Drop Reported Marked reductions in the number of cases of almost every type of disease seen by Ch- kitchurch doctors in September, as compared with Auiguit. are indicated by the four-weekly report of the Canterbury faculty of the College of General Practitioners. There were great reductions in the figures for influenza, enterovirus (“stomach ’flu”), gastro - enteritis, measles, otitis media (a middle-ear disease), and acute tonsillitis. The total number of cases reported fell from 1303 during the four weeks ended September 1 to 663 during the succeeding four weeks. Allowing for the smaller number of doctors reporting (an average of 9.5 corn-paired with 11.25 in the previous period), this was a drop of about 40 per cent. The only class of disease for which an increase of numbers was reported was

staphylococcal infection in children, where there was no more than a slight rise. The biggest proportionate decrease was in measles, 172 cases in the period ended September 1 falling to 51 in the period ended September 29. Individual doctors reported that sinusitis was common, that rheumatism increased in case numbers, and that otitis media, though mostly mild, was not responding in the expected manner to penicillin or the sulphonamides, and usually took two to three weeks to clear up.