[Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, Fife County Council.

  • Fife (Scotland). County Council.
Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, Fife County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    75/164 (page 65)
    INFECTIOUS AND OTHER DISEASES. The incidence of infectious diseases in Fife during 1946 was comparatively low. No epidemic of any kind threatened, the total number of cases notified being 1,693 as compared with 1,701 in 1945. Both scarlet fever and diphtheria showed a reduction in the number 'of cases notified. Scarlet fever claimed 485 cases in 1945 and 397 in 1946, a decrease of 88 cases. Diphtheria figures ,were also satisfactory, and undoubtedly the result of the immunisa- tion campaign which has now been,running for the past six years. In 1945 there were 154 cases of diphtheria in the County exclusive I of the two large Burghs of Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline, and in 4946 there were 107 cases, a decrease of 47. This decrease in i incidence in a deadly infection is gratifying, but the number of j cases occurring is still too large in a disease which can definitely | be controlled by preventive methods. Reference to this matter I will, however, be made later. The number of cases of pneumonia, both acute primary and influenzal, was greater than in 1945, the figures being acute primary, 328 in 1945 and 454 in 1946, an increase of 126 cases ; influenzal ; pneumonia, 39 in 1945 and 81 in 1946, an increase of 42 cases, f The number of pulmonary tuberculosis cases notified was 30 greater than in 1945, but there were 29 fewer cases of non-pulmonary tuberculosis. Only three cases of para-typhoid fever were notified in 1946 as against 17 in 1945 ; no cases, of typhoid fever were notified. An unusual case occurred at a farm in Cupar Area of a farm worker who was admitted to hospital suffering from infective jaundice, a disease which is usually due to ingestion of food or drinking water contaminated by rats who are themselves infected ' by the causal organism. The disease is a well-known occupational hazard occurring among coal miners, sewage workers and fish cleaners, but its occurrence in a farm worker is unusual. The assistance of the Area Advisory Officer, Department of Agriculture, was secured, and rats from the farm in question were sent to the Bacteriological Department, University of St Andrews, for ex- amination. Two of the first three rats caught at the farm were found to be infected. Rats from five surrounding farms and from ; a neighbouring refuse dump were caught and sent for investigation. Rats from two of these farms were found to be infected. There- after the Department of Agriculture undertook an extensive rat destruction campaign at the original and surrounding farms. No further cases occurred. The attached table shows the cases of infectious diseases notified during 1946 :—