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17
It would be interesting to know whether the compulsory notification
of Ophthalmia Neonatorum has diminished blindness or permanent
damage to the eyes, and what personal and family miseries have been
prevented and expense to the community saved.
The suggested compulsory notification of Ophthalmia Neonatorum
was dealt with in extenso in the 1910 Annual Report of the Medical
Officer of Health for Poplar, pages 19-33; special reports had been
made upon the compulsory notification by him during 1910 to the
Poplar Public Health and Housing Committee, and correspondence on
the subject passed between the Poplar Borough Council and the London
County Council and the special reports were forwarded to the Local
Government Board and the London County Council (see Annual Report
1910; History, Statistics and Aotion of the Poplar Borough Council,
etc.).
The outcome was that an “Order„ approved by the Local
Government Board was made by the London County Council on
7th February, 1911, and came into operation on 13th March 1911,
making the notification of Ophthalmia Neonatorum compulsory by
Medical Practitioners within the County of London. Then followed
" The Public Health (Ophthalmia Neonatorum) Regulations, 1914.
The Local Government Board issued an Order, dated 6th February,
1914, under Section 130 of the Public Health Act, 1875, extending the
compulsory notification of the disease to every sanitary district in
England and Wales.
The Regulations require that certain additional information shall
be given in each case beyond that required in connection with notifications
under the Infectious Disease (Notification) Act.
In districts in which the disease was already notifiable (Poplar
being one of the districts) a Medioal Practitioner when giving a notification
was required by the Regulations to furnish the additional information
to which reference has been made.
By Article VI. every Certified Midwife attending a child whom she
suspects to be suffering from the disease is required to furnish a
notification unless the case has already been notified by a Medical
Practitioner. The Order came into force on the 1st April, 1914.
The Local Government Board had been advised that general
notification of this disease was desirable. A large proportion of the
blindness contracted in childhood being due to the neglect of proper
precautions against the disease, and, in the Board's view, it is important
that Medical Officers of Health should have early information of all
cases.