INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Dominion, Volume 21, Issue 88, 12 January 1928, Page 11

INFECTIOUS DISEASES

THE YEAR IN WELLINGTON HEALTH DISTRICT , FREEDOM FROM SERIOUS OUTBREAKS HEAVY NOTIFICATIONS FROM SCARLET FEVER With the exception of a mild type of scarlet fever, which was somewdiat prevalent in the city and suburbs in the winter and early spring, comparative freedom from any serious outbreak of infectious diseases was experienced in the Wellington health district during the past twelve months. During the year 1927 there were well over a thousand 'notifications of scarlet fever in the Wellington health district, but when it is considered that the district extends westward to the boundary of the Patea County, just beyond Wanganui, as far as the East Cape on the north-east, and also includes the Nelson and Marlborough provinces, the number is not so formidable as at first might appear. The district, in fact, is the largest health district in population in the Dominion, and is also an exceedingly extensive one in point of area. Less Diphtheria Locally. Wellington City and the immediate counties and towns furnished almost half the total number of scarlet fever Cases in the whole, district, but analysed on a population basis, this number does not represent an unduly large per- * centage. Strange as it might appear to the layman, there was less diphtheria locally and in the congested city surroundings than there was 'in the Wa-nganui-Horowhenua and WairarapaEast Cape sub-districts, which are largely rural, but medical opinion shows that this is not unusual as regards this disease. All told there were 270 new cases of tuberculous notified for the year and 24-1 of pneumonia. The somewhat severe Weather in July last was reflected to a certain extent in the local pneumonia • figures when seventeen cases—the greatest number for any one month—were reported to the authorities, while the worst month in, the Taranaki area was August, when twenty-four cases were notified. The Nelson-Marlborough province maintained its reputation for healthy people, and notifiable diseases were few and far between, a clean bill of ■ health for the month being reported on more than one occasion. Director Outlines Position. The position as regards infectious diseases, both in the district and throughout the Dominion during the past year, was outlined to a Dominion representative yesterday by the Director of Public Hygiene (Dr. T. McKibbin). He pointed out that the Christmas and New Year season m the district had been very free from infectious diseases of anv description, which was very often the case, although that season in 1923, when infantile paralysis occasioned much • distress and alarm, proved an exception. It was noticeable to the medical officers for health in the district very early in the past year that scarlet fever, although of a mild type, was increasing in prevalence. Special steps were taken, such as to close visiting of school children bv school nurses, the following-up of cases, and in other ways to check the development, regarding- which there was no means of knowing whether or not the disease might increase in severity of type Happily, though, the tvp'e had remained known, and there was good reason to believe that the epidemic was over for the meantime. Question of Control. The doctor explained that diphtheria was a disease for which there was ' special means of control of proved , merit of value, such as the Shick testing of children and innoculation of * susceptible ones, with mixture of toxin , and anti-toxin, which conferred an immunity of several years’ duration, and < which parried the child over its srspectable age. There was also the means of taking throat swabs from school ( classes in which there was reason to believe there had been internal spread 1 within the classes. This also applied , to 'contacts in families? where there were known cases of diphtheria. By this means those who showed a positive * > test as carrying the ' infection, while not necessarily suffering from the dis-

ease, were restricted in their movements and opportunities for spreading it. The health staff used both these methods in an endeavour to maintain a balance of activity proportionate to the prevalence of the disease. The practice of innoculating school children with toxin and anti-toxin was developing in New Zealand, as it had done in the United States of America, aud latterly in England. Freedom from Influenza. Dr. McKibbin said that, as regards tuberculosis, was a steady tendency for the number of notifications to increase, while th e death-rate was reducing. "This,” he said, "is due to earlier attempts to treat bv the health authorities and the medical profession, ano ffeer notification by the' latter.” The doctor remarked that the year was one of freedom from influenza. but everv year, of course, the medical health officers were faced with a threatened epidemic, but nothing approaching the pandemic of 1918, although sufficient to.require close supervision. As regards pneumonia, this disease was really an accompaniment of influenza, anrt sometime* of measles, and largely dependent on the presence of epidemics of those two diseases. Sleeping Sickness. Encephalitis lethargies (commonly tailed sleeping sickness) was a comparatively new disease, and one which caused progressive drowsiness and paralvsis. It was sometimes the sequela of influenza. There had been a tendency all over the world for the disease to become more prevalent, but this may be the result of more accurate diagnosis. • Considerably more cases were notified in New Zealand todav than was the case several years ago. “It is well,” concluded Dr. McKibbin, "that the public should appreciate the fact that the increas-, ed notifications of infectious diseases does not necessarily mean poorer public health. On the contrary, there is a world-wide development of greater activity . in the nctification of infectious diseases, and of precaution to prevent their spread. This, it may be said, is associated with a steady waning death-rate, and is apparently of value.” Details for the Year. Details of infectious diseases in the

Wellington Health District for the year 1927 arc as follow:—

. - d i. s M C 2 ° S’® c3 “5 bW cj 01 aft ej cj 2° bi « o a e o ? u a o o-± tc T « d ■o Eh Scarlet fever 330 269 637 29 1271 Diphtheria . 224 214 Ifll 10 639 Enteric fever 17 76 2 1 ' 96 Tuberculosis 61 113 84 12 270 Cerebro-spinal meningitis 4 4 4 1 13 Poliomyelitis 3 4 4 3 14 Influenza (pneumonic) 16 5 3 1 25 Pneumonia 120 G7 51 6 244 Erysipelas .. 22 29 40 0 91 Puerperal fever .... 26 38 33 5 102 Eclampsia .. 0 11 1 1 19 Tetanus .... 0 3 0 0 3 Hydatids .., 4 9 0 1 14 Ophthalmia neonatorum 5 2 5 0 12 Encephalitis lethargica 2 7 - 3 0 12 Trachoma .. 2 1 0 0 3 Food poisoning 0 0 1 0 1