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50
ACUTE ANTERIOR POLIOMYELITIS.
4 patients were notified as suffering from poliomyelitis during 1919, of
which one was afterwards found to have been wrongly diagnosed, the number of
actual cases reported being therefore 3. One of these cases was fatal.
The particulars of the cases were as follows:—
G. C., male, aged 10. Ward 6 (E 4). Onset, shortly before Christmas, 1918.
Notified March 26. No marked acute illness ; left arm only affected. Illness
at home. Permanent wasting and paralysis of arm (March, 1920).
E. C., female, aged 2. Ward 3 (E 2). Onset, August 20. Notified August 27.
Fever, vomiting, convulsions, drowsiness; complete paralysis of both legs.
Admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital, August 23. March, 1920, right
log quite recovered; left leg still weak and wasted above and below knee.
W. E., male, aged 3 years and eight months. Ward 5 (W 3). Onset, August 24.
Notified September 8. Sore throat, headache, drowsiness, vomiting;
paralysis of both arms, right leg, muscles of neck and muscles of respiration,
especially diaphragm. Hyperesthesia of right hip and thigh. Admitted to
Great Ormond Street Hospital on August 28. Died August 31. P.M.—
Acute inflammation of cervical region of cord and congestion of meninges.
No cases of Polioencephalitis were reported.
EPIDEMIC CEREBROSPINAL MENINGITIS.
10 patients were notified in 1919 as suffering from cerebrospinal meningitis,
of which 3 were afterwards found to have been wrongly diagnosed. In
addition, one case was reported after de .th, thougli never notified. The
number of actual cases reported was therefore 8.
Seven of the 8 cases were fatal, making a case mortality of 87.5 per cent.
As far as could be ascertained, the recovery of the one non-fatal case was
complete. One of the cases died in 1920, the deaths in 1919 being 6 in
number, equal to a death-rate of 0.03 per 1000 (civil) population.