[Report 1963] / Medical Officer of Health, Staffordshire County Council.

  • Staffordshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1963
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1963] / Medical Officer of Health, Staffordshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    43/114 (page 41)
    PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER INFECTIOUS DISEASES The following statistics relate to the notifiable infectious diseases among the home population during the calendar year 1963. On reference to the tables at the end of the Report the numbers and death-rates for each Sanitary District will be found. Smallpox.—No case of smallpox was notified in 1963. The last cases recorded were in 1947 when an outbreak occurred in the south of the County mainly in Bilston. Scarlet Fever.—There was an increase in the incidence of this disease, 496 cases having been notified, compared with 343 in 1962. In the Urban Districts there were 429 cases and in the Rural Districts 67, as against 298 and 45 respectively in the previous year. The case-rates per thousand of population were:—Urban Districts 0-56, Rural Districts 0*25, with a total County Rate of 0*48, whilst that for England and Wales was 0-37. The corresponding rates for 1962 were 0-39, 0*17, 0-34 and 0-33 respect¬ ively. Diphtheria.—For the second successive year no case of diphtheria was notified in 1963. The last deaths from this disease were two in 1955 when 29 cases were notified. Enteric Fever.—Seven notifications of enteric fever were made during the year compared with none in 1962. Two cases were of Typhoid and five were of paratyphoid. The cases occurred in Urban Districts. The 1963 case-rates for the country as a whole, for typhoid and para¬ typhoid, were 0 -01 and 0 -01 per thousand of the population respectively, the Staffordshire rates being 0 -00 in each instance. Measles.—During the period, 16,911 notifications were made, which indicates an appreciable increase, for the corresponding figure for 1962 was 1,329. Twelve thousand two hundred and seventy-two cases occurred in Urban and 4,639 in Rural Districts, compared with 954 and 375 in the previous year. The 1963 case-rates for the County and England and Wales were 16*36 and 12 *78 as against 1 *31 and 3*96 in 1962. Six deaths occurred. There were no deaths in 1962. Whooping Cough.—There was an increase in the number of noti¬ fications, 737 being made in 1963, as compared with 160 in 1962. In Urban Districts there were 464 as against 130, whilst the corresponding figures for the Rural Districts were 273 and 30. The case-rate for the County was 0*71 and for England and Wales 0 *74. There were three deaths during the year compared with one in 1962. Food Poisoning.—Eighty-two notifications were made in 1963 compared with 189 in 1962. Sixteen County Districts were affected against 17 last year. Dysentery.—Four hundred and seventy notifications were made in 1963, as compared with 860 in 1962, 516 in 1961 and 233 in 1960. Twenty- three of the Sanitary Districts were affected, but in three instances, viz.. Stone U.D., Leek R.D., and Stafford R.D., single cases only were notified.