London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Southall 1946

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southall]

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Vaccination.
The total number of successful vaccination certificates received during the year
was 265, and the number of certificates of exemption issued was 270.
Table XXII in Appendix gives details of the percentage of children successfully
vaccinated during the last eleven years.
The proportion of vaccinated to unvaccinated infants becomes smaller each year. In
1946 it was 24% vaccinated to 76% unvaccinated. It seems difficult to combat lethargy of
parents in this matter, but in the course of health teaching, all mothers are informed of the
dangers of smallpox for unvaccinated infants.
Disinfection.
In cases of infectious disease, rooms, clothing, etc., are disinfected—rooms by sealing
and fumigating with formalin or a formalin preparation ; clothing, bedding, etc., and infected
articles which can be removed for steam disinfection, by treatment in the disinfector at
the hospital.

Table I

List of premises, articles, etc., disinfected during the year :—

Rooms97Covers61
Beds183Eiderdowns32
Blankets292Pillows295
Bolsters65Sheets140
Books70Miscellaneous36
Scabies Clinic : Bags of clothing85Total1,356

The following articles were destroyed : 10 mattresses, 2 bolsters, 1 pillow and 37
articles of clothing.
Cancer.
It will be seen by the table of causes of death (page 26) that in 1946, 94 cases (40
males and 54 females) died from cancer. (See Appendix, Tables XXIII and XXIV.)
There was again in 1946 an increase in the number of deaths from cancer, although
not to the high level it reached in the years preceding 1945. During that year the statistics
showed a marked and satisfactory dimunition in the number of deaths from cancer.
Special Infectious Diseases.
Smallpox {Variola).
No patients with smallpox or contacts of cases of smallpox were notified to the
Department during the year. No work was done under the Public Health (Smallpox)
Regulations, 1917.
There were no cases of smallpox in Southall during 1946, but 9 persons who had
been in contact with smallpox in other countries and who were returning either as soldiers
or civilians were notified to the health department under the Public Health (Smallpox)
Regulations, 1917. All these persons were kept under observation until the period of the
incubation of the disease was over.
Scarlet Fever (Scarlatina).
The number of notifications received during the year was 67, as compared with 104
for the previous year.
Of these, 59 were removed to the Isolation Hospital.
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