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
London County Council 1935
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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15
The administrative arrangements for the collection and distribution of immune
poliomyelitis serum, described in my last two reports, were continued during the
year. The demand for serum was observed to diminish appreciably ; the reduction
was due in part to the lowered incidence of the disease, but was possibly also caused
by reason of the doubt which recent experimental and clinical investigations have
thrown on the efficacy of the measure. The disease maintains the sporadic character
it has generally manifest in Britain, imposing particularly difficult conditions for
early diagnosis. Moreover, as long as it remains a comparatively infrequent disease,
sufficient opportunities for the trial of the prophylactic are unlikely to present
themselves.
After receiving the data which have accumulated since the inception in 1932
of the scheme for the maintenance of a stock of immune serum, the informal committee,
consisting of representatives of the Ministry of Health, the Medical Research
Council and the Council, were unable to satisfy themselves that employment of the
serum has resulted in a reduction of the number or severity of paralytic complications.
The following statement shows (a) the numbers of known cases of the diseases
specified (i.e. cases notified and subsequently confirmed, plus the number of unnotified
cases recorded in the Registrar-General's death returns), and (b) the total
numbers of deaths recorded in the Registrar-General's death returns :—
Table 12.
| Year | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cerebro-spinal fever— | |||||||||||
| (a) | 93 | 100 | 107 | 88 | 138 | 104 | 203 | 282 | 227 | 139 | 108 |
| (b) | 07 | 71 | 66 | 59 | 85 | 84 | 131 | 148 | 110 | 78 | 69 |
| Encephalitis lethargiea— | |||||||||||
| (a) | 250 | 195 | 137 | 105 | 103 | 94 | 70 | 79 | 49 | 51 | 40 |
| 131 | 90 | 76 | 51 | 63 | 72 | 51 | 59 | 53 | 36 | 34 | |
| Poliomyelitis and polioencephalitis— | |||||||||||
| 48 | 85 | 86 | 46 | 01 | 37 | 53 | 91 | 67 | 73 | 86 | |
| (b) | 13 | 20 | 17 | 14 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 19 | 13 | 13 | 11 |
The following table shows the age incidence of actual cases of cerebro-spinal fever, encephalitis lethargiea and poliomyelitis (including polioencephalitis). Table 13.
| Age periods | Under 3 | 3-5 | 5-10 | 10-20 | 20-30 | 30-40 | 40-50 | 50-60 | Over 60 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cerebro-spinal fever | 43 | 9 | 6 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 89 |
| Encephalitis lethargiea | — | 3 | — | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 14 |
| Poliomyelitis and polioencephalitis | 22 | 27 | 14 | 13 | 5 | 1 | — | — | — | 82 |
Infectious
diseases made
notifiable by
local order.
The following infectious diseases were notifiable in the metropolitan boroughs
specified at the end of 1935 :—
Measles. First cases in family : Battersea, Finsbury, Greenwich, Hampstead,
Lambeth, St. Pancras, and Southwark ; cases under 6 years of age : Shoreditch and
Stepney ; all cases : Fulham.