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
Southgate 1936
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southgate]
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is distinctly unsatisfactory, especially as the information is
usually received too late to be of the slightest value. I reported
last year that 10-12 days occasionally elapsed between the child
being absent from school and the notification being received at the
Public Health Department. I have gone into the figures in more
detail this year, and find that this interval is sometimes very much
more prolonged than then indicated. The following table sets out
the period after which notification was received regarding various
cases of non-notifiable infectious disease. The total number of
cases represents a consecutive batch of 150 notifications:—
Notifications received:—
| 1 to 5 days after onset of illness | 23 |
| 5 to 10 | 38 |
| 10 to 20 | 55 |
| 20 to 30 ,, ,, | 19 |
| 30 to 40 | 8 |
| 40 and over ,, ,, ,, | 7 |
| 150 |
It will be seen that the interval elapsing between onset of
disease and notification is extremely variable. It must be realised,
of course, that this may be due to the fact that the illness was
not reported at the school until the child returned after convalescence.
On the other hand, one would expect that attendance
officers or school nurses could obtain this information and could
transmit it either direct to the Public Health Department or to
the Head Teachers of the schools concerned, when it could be sent
to -us. Neighbouring districts, which operate their own school
medical service, obtain this information in detailed form at least
once each week. When it is remembered that Southgate possesses
a follow-up system more complete than that which obtains in many
other districts, the fact that we are deprived of this information is
particularly regrettable.
The type of measles case occurring within the Borough during
1936 was not particularly severe, although one death occurred in
a child under 5 years of age. When the epidemic was making itself
apparent, I wrote to all the doctors in the district inviting them to
send suitable cases to the Isolation Hospital, and also informing
them that nursing facilities were available through the Borough
Council's Southgate Queen's Nursing Scheme. These facilities
were gratefully received, and 20 cases were admitted to the Isolation
Hospital. In addition, the Queen's Nurses made 109 visits to
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