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Of the total number of notified cases of scarlet fever, as many as 131 cases
or 64.5 per cent, were isolated at home. It is interesting to compare this percentage
with the corresponding percentage for home isolation of this disease during
the years between 1930 and 1938, when never more than 7 per cent, of cases of
scarlet fever were isolated at home.
Frequent visits are made by the district inspectors to these cases in order to
ensure that proper precautions are being taken to prevent the spread of this disease.
Smallpox. Seven smallpox contacts living or staying in the Borough were
kept under daily surveillance following the death from smallpox of a passenger on
board the s.s. Mooltan which docked at the Port of London in the month of April.
Altogether there were 11 confirmed cases in the country, five of them in the
London area, with six fatal cases. A further 22 contacts were also kept under
observation until it had been established that the case of which they were contacts
was not, in fact, smallpox. Arrangements were made for additional vaccination
and all necessary precautions were taken. Woolwich was indeed fortunate that
no case of smallpox developed when it is remembered that one of the contacts dined
with a friend the evening before the friend developed smallpox.
Food Poisoning. There were no serious outbreaks of food poisoning in the
Borough during the year 1949. Actual notifications totalled 4 and no deaths were
attributed to food poisoning.
In the majority of cases of food poisoning, the illness is normally of short
duration with symptoms of diarrhoea, abdominal pains and vomiting. Probably
only a minority of patients seek medical attention, consequently difficulty in tracing
the causal organism with certainty is frequent.
In two cases organisms of the Morgan type, probably derived from ham sandwiches,
were isolated from the specimens taken from the patients. Another
patient was found to be suffering from a Salmonella Typhi Murium infection believed
to have been derived from duck or chicken eaten at a meal in a London restaurant.
Reports were received that a number of other patients present at this meal (a dinner)
were also suffering from food poisoning and that in each case they had eaten a
meal consisting of duck or chicken and ice cream.
From investigations into a further case of food poisoning, it was ascertained
that three members of a family, who had eaten a meal in an hotel, were all ill. The
food suspected was meat pie.
The Minister of Health in a memorandum to local authorities issued during
1949, stated that, in general, experience during the past 10 years had shown that
the notification of food poisoning has achieved the purpose intended, namely, that
circumstances requiring further investigation and action of the kind which a general
practitioner cannot be expected to undertake are brought promptly to the notice
of the Medical Officer of Health.
Poliomyelitis. In the years 1947 and 1949, this disease occurred to a greater
extent than ever before in this country. In Woolwich there were more cases of
poliomyelitis than in any other year on record. The total number of confirmed
cases was 25 against 23 in the 1947 epidemic. Of the confirmed cases 18 made
a complete recovery, one patient has some paralysis, four patients with more severe
paralysis are still in hospital and the remaining two cases were fatal.
Prophylaxis Statistics.
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