London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1959
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
This page requires JavaScript
70
yellow fever and. cholera. When completed by the medical practitioner,
the certificate must be authenticated by the Medical Officer of Health.
During the year, three thousand, two hundred and thirty-three
of these certificates were authenticated in Kensington. In addition,
twenty-four special exemption certificates were issued to travellers for
use in the United States of America.
Notifications
The following tables show (1) the number of cases of infectious
disease notified during the year 1959, with comparative figures for the
previous -seven years; (2) the number of notifications divided into age
groups; and (3) the number of cases notified in each ward of the borough.
TABLE 1
| Notifiable disease | Number of cases notified | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | 1958 | 1957 | 1956 | 1955 | 1954 | 1953 | 1952 | |
| Scarlet fever | 54 | 27 | 33 | 45 | 50 | 52 | 78 | 108 |
| Diphtheria (including membranous croup) | - | - | - | 1 | 2 | - | 2 | - |
| Enteric fever | 6 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 2 |
| Puerperal pyrexia | 112 | 116 | 123 | 117 | 125 | 96 | 65 | 83 |
| Acute primary pneumonia and acute influenzal pneumonia | 60 | 70 | 75 | 65 | 105 | 54 | 93 | 71 |
| Dysentery | 110 | 117 | 77 | 88 | 99 | 68 | 131 | 31 |
| Erysipelas | 6 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 11 | 11 |
| Meningococcal infection | 2 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 4 |
| Malaria | 1 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 1 |
| Acute poliomyelitis Paralytic | 7 | 2 | 13 | 14 | 10 | 5 | 9 | 17 |
| Non-paralytic | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 20 | - | 5 | 4 |
| Acute encephalitis | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 1 | - | 3 |
| Tuberculosis (all forms) | 194 | 179 | 208 | 258 | 218 | 243 | 256 | 251 |
| Measles | 737 | 654 | 982 | 358 | 1425 | 94 | 740 | 839 |
| Ophthalmia neonatorum | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 2 |
| Enteritis + | 7 | 13 | 10 | 14 | 13 | 20 | 27 | 30 |
| Pood poisoning | 65 | 47 | 52 | 63 | 53 | 58 | 79 | 20 |
| Scabies | 42 | 52 | 52 | 40 | 54 | 42 | 42 | 26 |
| Whooping Cough | 83 | 92 | 130 | 236 | 116 | 136 | 485 | 228 |
| Typhus fever | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | - | - |
| TOTALS | 1489 | 1400 | 1781 | 1331 | 2322 | 896 | 2046 | 1731 |
+ Notifiable only in children under the age of 5.
NOTE: Cases of mistaken diagnosis are excluded from
above table.