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59
The other Boroughs in London in which the disease is notifiable are Fulham, Finsbury, Poplar,
Southwark, Deptford, Greenwich and Woolwich.
With the information secured by means of compulsory notification it is possible to take effective
steps in regard to prevention and treatment of the disease, and the following scheme was put into
operation on the 1st July, 1924.
Prevention.
The particulars in regard to each notification of enteritis received are telephoned to the
appropriate Women Health Officer who visits the home forthwith and gives such advice on measures
of prevention as is necessary. She leaves a pamphlet dealing with the prevention and treatment
of the disease, and to avoid confusion in the mind of the mother, her verbal advice follows on the
lines of the pamphlet with only such modifications as the circumstances of the case indicate.
If during the course of their daily work the Women Health Officers hear of any cases through
unofficial sources, these are visited at once and if necessary a doctor is called in.
The Health Officers pay further visits to the home, but the frequency of these depends upon
the severity of the case, the type of home and mother, and the urgency of other work demanding
their attention.
The number of cases visited from the 1st July, 1924, to the 31st December, 1925, was 133.
Of these cases 74 were under the age of one year and 59 were between the ages of one and five years.
The number of families in which the notified patient was the only case was 117. The number of
families in which more than one case occurred was 8. The number of healthy children attacked
was 95. Thirty-eight cases occurred in children who were under the average weight for their age
and suffered from chronic digestive disturbances.
From a careful study of the cases it would appear that there is no evidence that the disease is
very infectious, but in some instances where there were two cases in the same house or the same
family there was some evidence of infection having been conveyed by the faecal discharges. The
sum of the evidence seems to suggest that epidemic diarrhoea is infectious to about the same extent
as typhoid fever and is conveyed by much the same channels.
During the month of June, the Kensington Council of Social Service undertook propaganda
work in regard to the prevention of enteritis by the institution of what was called a "Fly Week."
This effort was a very valuable adjunct to the work being carried out by the Borough Council.
A lecturer, accompanied by a cart loaded with practical exhibits, traversed North Kensington
from end to end, giving instruction to groups of people who gathered round on the best way of
dealing, from the point of view of health, with the fly nuisance. The paid lecturer was supported
during her campaign by volunteers.
Refuse removal and the general scavenging of streets and mewsways are amongst the most
important factors in the prevention of enteritis and a description of the preventive work of the
Borough Council would not be complete unless reference were made to their efforts in these matters.
This section of the report is intended to deal with the prevention and treatment of zymotic enteritis
under the scheme controlled by the Public Health Committee on behalf of the Council, and it is,
therefore, not necessary to give here a detailed statement of the refuse removal and scavenging
work. Reference is, however, made to these matters, which are under the direction of the Works
Committee, in another section of this Report.
Home Nursing and Treatment.
For the purposes of home nursing and treatment, the Council have made use of the facilities
offered by the Kensington District Nursing Association, which have proved so excellent in
connection with the Council's scheme for dealing with ophthalmia neonatorum.
Cases from the point of view of home nursing and treatment by the Council come under the
following headings:—
(a) Doctor in attendance and nursing assistance from the Council not needed.
(b) Doctor in attendance who proposes to treat the case throughout, but such nursing
assistance as the Council could offer welcomed.
(c) Doctor in attendance who desires the child to go to hospital, or is prepared to hand
over the case entirely to officers working under the Council.
(d) No doctor in attendance.
Cases in Group (a) are visited and advised from the preventive aspect, but no further action is
taken by the Council's officers.
Cases in Group (b) are visited and arrangements made by the Health Officers for nurses from
the Kensington District Nursing Association to attend. (In cases residing in the Golborne Infant
Welfare Centre area, the Centre nurse attends).