London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Wandsworth 1940
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth, Metropolitan Borough]
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18
Report of the Medical Officer of Health for 1940.
During the year 50 tubes of anti-toxin were issued to medical
practitioners for the treatment of cases of diphtheria.
Measles. There was no epidemic of measles in 1940. The
number of cases reported was 230 and there were two deaths.
Table IV. gives the number of cases and deaths from the disease during the last 10 years.
TABLE IV.
| 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cases Reported | 291 | 3598 | 615 | 4148 | 137 | 3987 | 589 | 3594 | 149 | 230 |
| Deaths | 2 | 37 | 2 | 37 | 2 | 24 | 2 | 13 | — | 2 |
Enteric and Para-typhoid Fevers. 13 cases and no
deaths of the above occurred, compared with nine cases and two
deaths in the previous year. Four of the cases were true Enteric
Fever and nine were Para-typhoid Fever.
Dysentery. 31 cases of Dysentery were notified but no
deaths occurred.
Puerperal Fever and Puerperal Pyrexia. During the
year six cases of Puerperal Fever and 10 cases of Puerperal Pyrexia
were notified. There were nine deaths. The mortality rate
was 2.38 per 1,000 (live and still) births.
Ophthalmia Neonatorum. 34 cases were notified. 26 of
these recovered without any impairment of vision. Seven
of the infants removed from the Borough and the final condition
of the eyes was not ascertained. One infant died.
Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis. There were 74 cases of this
disease notified and nine deaths occurred. Two other cases
were notified, but proved not to be cerebro-spinal meningitis.
14 deaths were registered as being caused by Meningitis,