View report page

60
seventy-seven notifications were received, 147 patients being certified as suffering from acute
primary pneumonia and 30 from influenzal pneumonia.
The number of deaths from pneumonia during the year was 176, and 44 deaths were certified
to be due to influenza.
Zymotic Enteritis or Summer Diarrhœa.—During the year, 52 cases of zymotic enteritis were
notified, and there were 50 deaths of children under the age of one year from diarrhoea or enteritis.
Forty-three of the deaths occurred amongst infants who had not been notified. In 1924, the
borough council adopted a scheme for the control and treatment of zymotic enteritis or summer
diarrhoea. From 1924 until the year under review, the scheme was in operation for the summer
months only, but during the past year the scheme operated from the 1st January to the 31st
December.
The council retain the part-time services of Dr. Ronald Carter, who has made a special study
of zymotic enteritis. Dr. Carter pays periodical visits to the various infant welfare centres, where
he is consulted in reference to difficult cases. He also sees cases in their homes which are not
attended by other doctors.
The following is a report by Dr. Carter, giving particulars of cases of enteritis dealt with during
the year under review:—
Zymotic Enteritis Scheme, 1934.
The council's scheme for the treatment of zymotic enteritis in the home during the period,
1st January to 31st December, has worked smoothly. During the summer I saw a few isolated cases of
infective enteritis with high temperatures, but the great majority of cases were caused by dietetic
disorders.
I saw 35 cases in their own homes, and paid 160 visits. No case proved fatal in the home.
I sent four cases to hospital ; these babies were suffering from toxæmia and could not be treated
at home. One of them had attended a welfare centre fairly regularly and was a well nourished child,
and I cannot understand how she developed the illness. She ultimately died in hospital. This was the
only death that occurred. The patient had a temperature of 105° F., there was no illness amongst the
rest of the family, and the mother was intelligent and clean.
Several cases of diarrhoea in breast-fed infants were referred to me by local doctors. In these
cases malted milk was not necessary, and as there was no vomiting, breast feeding was continued ;
the mothers, however, were convinced that their breast milk did not agree with the infant. I was able
to assure them that they were wrong. All these cases recovered and breast feeding was continued.
The treatment comprised washing out the colon and giving a dose of castor oil. During the year I
saw no case of dysentery or paratyphoid.
District Nursing Association.
No death occurred whilst the nurses were in attendance. Thirteen cases were referred to hospitals.
The nurses attended 76 cases from the 1st January to the 31st December, and paid 615 visists.
I think the council's scheme has worked well during the year as a result of the whole-hearted
co-operation between the council's health officers, the staffs of the infant welfare centres, and the
district nurses.
(Signed) Ronald Carter.
Dysentery.—Five cases of dysentery were notified during the year. Three were of the amoebic
type and two cases were infected with the Sonne organism. Two of the cases of amoebic dysentery
were contracted abroad. Both the Sonne cases occurred in private houses and were removed to
St. Charles Hospital.
Acute Rheumatism.—During the year under review, 56 cases of this disease were notified,
19 of which were removed to hospital for treatment.
The sixth annual report on the working of the rheumatism scheme during the period
1st October, 1933, to 30th September, 1934, prepared by the physicians in charge of the centre
and the medical officer of health, appears as Appendix I to this report.
Other Notifiable Diseases.—With the exception of tuberculosis, which is dealt with in a
separate section, no notifiable infectious diseases, other than those to which reference has been
made, were notified during the year.
Non-Notifiable Diseases.
Measles.—There were 56 deaths from measles in Kensington during the year. The women
health officers paid 1,574 visits to measles patients. Five hundred and eleven cases were removed
to the London county council hospitals.
In the early part of the year, measles was epidemic in London and prevalent in the borough.
With the object of reducing the mortality and mitigating the complications associated with
measles epidemics by the prompt removal of cases to hospital, the London county council and the
several metropolitan borough councils have adopted a scheme of co-operation which is put into
force during epidemic periods.
The scheme was applied early in the year and, as the borough council health visitors found it
impossible to visit all the cases of measles occurring, the council appointed a trained hospital nurse
temporarily to assist. The scheme worked very satisfactorily.
Whooping Cough.—There were 26 deaths from this cause. The deaths in the three preceding
years were 10, 36 and 10. The women health officers paid 304 visits to cases of this disease during
the year. The number of cases admitted to hospitals from Kensington was 91.