Annual report of the Medical Health Officer / City of Winnipeg.

Winnipeg (Man.). Health Department.

Date:: [1963]

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Health Officer / City of Winnipeg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

51/128 (page 21)

21 is slightly more than the previous year when 882 cases were recorded. It is the second year in succession that this illness reached epidemic proportions in Winnipeg. We noted in last year°s report that the use of new measles vaccine was not officially accepted in Canada and still considered to be in the experimental state. This year we. are able to state that these products have been licensed and that their usefulness and safety has been fairly well established. We sincerely hope that in years to come a much greater benefit will be derived from these and similar immunizing agents which will enable us to completely control measles and other viral infectious diseases of child¬ hood . 7, Mumps This was a year during which mumps really took epidemic pro¬ portions in Winnipeg. Our idea about its incidence is very incomplete but at least 629 cases were reported through various schools. Under-reporting is so common because the disease is not notifiable9 because no quarantine of contacts is observed, and because in the great majority of cases it runs a benign course without serious complications, at least in school-aged children. There is no specific treatment. No vaccines are available although some medical investigators are developing such products; these latter do not appear at the moment to have as high a significance as in the case of measles vaccine. 8, Diphtheria There were 3 cases of diphtheria during the year as compared with 8 last year and no deaths were recorded. In 1962 there were 2 deaths. Six persons were reported as diphtheria carriers in comparison to 13 found the previous year. All cases and carriers were confined to the members of two families; one was living on Jarvis Avenue and one on Alfred Avenue, The first case, a 7 year old child, had been initially immunized but had no booster since 1,957 . A 2 year old girl, sister of the above case, had only a single injection of a quadruple vaccine in 1961, which is obviously inadequate. Only the third case had been fully immunized including boosters. 9, Dysentery There were 26 cases of bacillary dysentery reported during the year. These were more than in 1962, partly perhaps due to better reporting. Public health nurses or a doctor visit the homes where the cases have occurred and instruct the people involved how to avoid the spread of the infection to other members of the family. In the case of children we see that they do not return to school until they have recovered from the disease. We had 144 cases of ''unspecified dysentery reported in 1963 in contrast to only 2 cases during the previous year. Our explanation about this fact is that an unusually great number of viral infections have occurred this year in Winnipeg. Many of these infections had abdominal manifestations, including diarrhoea. Treating physicians have considered these diarrhoea cases, especially when more severe than usual, as unspecified dysentery and reported them as such. In our opinion these cases were due to viral enteritis and re¬ covery without consequences was the rule.