Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1957
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SMALLPOX
No case of Smallpox has been notified to the Public Health Department
as having occurred in the Borough since 1928, and there have been no
deaths from this disease for over fifty years
This Department was informed by the Ministry of Health early in
May of this year that a German business man had been admitted to a
hospital in Hamburg suffering from Smallpox after a brief visit to
this country. He had left a hotel in Chelsea to fly to Germany on
the morning of the day he was taken ill, and it was reported that
possibly he was infectious at the time. A visit to the hotel revealed
that the majority of the people resident at the time had left the
Borotigh, and from information obtained from the hotel's register, the
Ministry of Health were informed of those who had left the country and
Medical Officers of Health of the authorities concerned where an
address had been given in this country,, The hotel, and the staff which
number seventy were kept wider surveillance for twenty-one days from
the date the patient left. Fortunately there were no untoward
developmentsā
DYSENTERY
During 1957, seventy=one notifications were submitted as compared
with 349 in 1956 and 216 in 1955o
65% of the sufferers were residents of an institution not controlled
by this authority,, The premises were such that it was difficult to
prevent the spread of infection mong the particular type of inraatee.
Nevertheless the Borough Council has been at great pains to bring about
the eradication of the incidence of dysentery,,
MEASLES
Four hundred and six notifications of Measles were received during
1957, as compared with 183 and 736 in 1956 and 1955 respectively,,
WHOOPING COUGH
Sixty-nine cases were notified during the year against 72 in 1956.
SCARLET FEVER
Thirty=four notifications of Scarlet Fever were received in the
Public Health Department during 1957, as compared with 38 in 19560