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Infectious Disease among Mothers and Children.
Puerperal Fever.
Three cases of puerperal fever were notified in 1923. One was a fatal case,
the mother a married woman, entered a maternity hospital in the ordinary way
previous to the birth of her second child; she died in hospital when her child was
ten weeks old.
The second case was an unmarried mother, a primipara, who entered a
hospital in the ordinary way, the child lived only three hours dying of asphyxia
livida; the mother recovered.
The third case was a married woman, a primipara, who had been confined at
home at full term, a doctor and midwife being in attendance; the child was bom
before the arrival of the doctor, the midwife only being present at the birth. The
mother was removed on the recommendation of her doctor to a M.A.B. Hospital;
she returned recovered in three weeks time.
Ophthalmia Neonatorum.
During the year 14 cases of ophthalmia neonatorum occurring in babies born
in the Borough were brought to our notice.
Six out of the 14 cases were notified in accordance with the Public Health
(Ophthalmia Neonatorum) Regulations, 1914, four of the notifications being from
hospitals and two from private medical practitioners. Four of these cases were
only notified after communication with the medical attendant.
Unless each case is notified to the Local Medical Officer of Health the public
will be ignorant of the real extent of the disease; the whole of the cases cannot be
followed up to ascertain the amount of permanent damage done to the eyesight.
In the following tables particulars are given as to each case:—