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
Bermondsey 1949
Report on the sanitary condition of the Borough of Bermondsey for the year 1949
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| Disease. | Authority for Notification. |
|---|---|
| Meningococcal Infection | Public Health Act, 1936 (Section 143) Regulation (No. 2259) made by the Minister of Health, 1949 (1.1.50) |
| Ophthalmia Neonatorum | L.C.C. Order—Public Health (London) Act, 1936 (Section 305). |
| Plague | Public Health Act, 1936 (Section 143). Regulations of Local Government Board, 1900. |
| Puerperal Pyrexia | Public Health (London) Act, 1936, as amended by the L.C.C. (General Powers) Act, 1948. |
| Relapsing Fever | Public Health (London) Act, 1936 (Section 304). |
| *Scabies | County of London (Scabies) Regulations, 1943. |
| Scarlatina or Scarlet Fever | Public Health (London) Act, 1936 (Section 304). |
| Small-pox | do. |
| Tuberculosis | Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1930. |
| Typhus Fever | Public Health (London) Act, 1936 (Section 304). |
| Whooping Cough | Public Health Act, 1936 (Section 143). Regulations made by the Minister of Health, 1938 and 1940. |
* A notification is not required where to the knowledge of the medical
practitioner, a case of scabies has occurred in the house and has been notified
within the four weeks immediately preceding the date on which he first became
aware of the disease in the case he is attending.
DIPHTHERIA
There was a somewhat distressing epidemic of Diphtheria in
the first half of the year. On the 29th April an infant aged 2 years
was admitted to hospital suffering from Diphtheria; she had not
been immunised and she died in hospital on the 10th May. A child
living in the same house attended the neighbouring school and 10
children from this school were subsequently removed to hospital,
and later " contacts " of some of these children also contracted the
disease. In all 51 patients were removed to hospital; 31 were found
to be suffering from Diphtheria and 7 were considered to be " carriers "
I regret to say that there were 5 deaths. There was some considerable
local alarm and the school was closed for a few days and disinfected.
As none of the children who died had been immunised, special clinics
were at once arranged and several hundred children were immunised.