[The epidemiologic situation of infectious disease in West Germany in 1979]

A survey is given of the occurrence of communicable diseases in the Federal Republic of Germany including Berlin (West) in 1979. The epidemiological situation was dominated by salmonellosis, infectious hepatitis, scarlet fever, and meningitis. There was a striking increase in imported tropical diseases, such as malaria and leprosy. Poliomyelitis continued to decrease. There was an insignificant number of influenza cases in the winter 79/80. Due to the coming into force of the Amendment of the Federal Communicable Diseases Act on 1 January 1980 the obligation to notify communicable diseases has been changed in some respects. Moreover, the statistical data on communicable diseases have been collected and published only quarterly.