Health > Epidemic diseases in Eastern and Central Europe

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Further details regarding the prevalence of dysentery during the current year are given in
Table No. 4 (page 32). The notifications are generally incomplete and no distinction is made
between the various types or causative agents, and the data relate merely to a group of intestinal
infections with similar clinical symptoms.
4. SMALLPOX.
Smallpox has not been very prevalent anywhere in Europe during the current year. In Russia
its incidence appears to be only half of what it was last year; 45,436 cases were notified during the
first ten months of 1922, as against 98,578 during the whole of 1921 and 158,505 in 1920. The decrease
is marked in practically every government of Russia; in the Ukraine 9,009 cases were registered for the
first ten months of the current year, as against 29,041 in 1921. The local health authorities ascribe
this decrease to a vaccination campaign which has been conducted throughout the country.
In Poland the incidence of smallpox declined from a maximum of 446 cases in April to 31 cases
in December. In Germany and elsewhere in Central Europe, smallpox has been almost non-existent
during recent months. In Switzerland, on the other hand, 1,153 cases were notified during the whole
year, and in England there were 1,003 cases in 1922; the cases were, however, mostly very mild.
5. PLAGUE.
Plague has occurred in Russia only at Selo Fedosevka, on the Kalmuk Steppes, where 27 cases,
of which 18 were fatal, were verified by a special enquiry in June, July and August, and in the
Kirghis Steppes, where 23 cases suspected to be plague were reported in January. No further reports
indicating the presence of plague in Russia have been received.
6. EPIDEMIC DISEASES OF THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM.
Encephalitis lethargica, acute poliomyelitis and meningococcal meningitis have not shown any
considerable prevalence in 1922. Encephalitis lethargica, which in the previous years has attracted
much attention, has been far less prevalent than during the two preceding winters. Compulsory
notification of this disease is of recent date and not, as yet, generally adopted; reliable data are res¬
tricted, therefore, to half a score of countries, largely in the northern part of Europe. Fewer cases
are known to have occurred in the Mediterranean countries than in Northern Europe; but cases have
een observed as far south as Algeria, where twenty cases appear in the epidemic records for the last
two years. An outbreak of a mild character occurred in the first months of the year in Northern
Italy. J
■ TSm\detailS 88 haVe been received regarding the prevalence of encephalitis lethargica are given
m 1 able No. 12 (page 41) and its incidence is given below for a few countries where it was most
prevalent and where data are available for three years.