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
Tottenham 1955
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Tottenham]
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87
General Health and Infectious Diseases
In general the children as seen at routine medical inspection
are healthy, well-nourished and well-clad, and the following
tables show the results of inspection. Diseases of squalor such
as pediculosis and scabies are,, except for a hard core of cases,
becoming a thing of the past- The commonest problems met with
today are mental rather than physical and this subject is taken up
later in this report.
PERIODIC MEDICAL INSPECTION
| Periodic Medical | Inspections | Other periodic inspections | Other Inspections | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entrants | Second Age Group | Third Age Group | Total | Special Inspections | Re-inspections | ||
| 2,806 | 2,571 | 3,056 | 8,433 | 5,156 | 4,671 | 4,601 | |
CLASSIFICATION OF THE GENERAL CONDITION OF PUPILS
| Age Groups | No. of pupils inspected | A (Good) | B (Fair) | C (Poor) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | ||
| Entrants | 2,806 | 1, 162 | 41. 4 | 1,635 | 58.3 | 9 | 0.3 |
| Second Age Group | 2,571 | 1,084 | 42. 2 | 1,477 | 57. 4 | 10 | 0.4 |
| Third Age Group | 3,056 | 1, 248 | 40.8 | 1,785 | 58.4 | 23 | 0. 8 |
| Other periodic inspections | 5, 156 | 2,027 | 39.3 | 3,103 | 60.2 | 26 | 0.5 |
| Total | 13, 589 | 5, 521 | 40.6 | 8,000 | 58.9 | 68 | 0.5 |
As far as infectious diseases are concerned, the most notable
feature of the past year has been the rise in the number of cases
of measles notified Measles is a disease normally occurring in
epidemics every other year and there would normally have been a
decrease in notifications in 1954. This took place, however, to
such an extent that the number of susceptible children in the
Population was very large and the disease swept through the whole
country in the early months of 19 55 Fortunately it is no longer
the serious disease it once was, partly due no doubt to chemotheraPeutic
agents, partly to improved health of the child population,
Possibly due to decreased virulence. In Kornsey and Tottenham
t
1955 there were 1,624 cases notified but no deaths were
recorded
Only one case of diphtheria occurred during the year; fortunately
the organism was not virulent and the child had a very mild
infection :