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- 23 -
Diphtheria
Thirty-five cases of diphtheria were notified and
removed to hospital, but 23 of these were subsequently
found not to be suffering from the disease and were discharged
to their homes. There was only one instance where more than
one case occurred in the same house.
The net figure of 12 cases is the lowest annual figure
ever recorded in Kensington.
There was no death from diphtheria among the cases
notified during the year, but there was a case where a
Kensington woman died outside London and the cause of death
was attributed after post-mortem examination to "diphtheritic
meningitis". It was understood that this woman, aged 48
years, had never been immunised against diphtheria.
The work of diphtheria immunisation, which had been
carried out by the Council since 1934, was transferred
under the National Health Service Act to the London County
Council on 5th July, For record purposes, the following
table gives a summary of the work carried out from the
b®ginning of the year to 4th July, 1948:-
Pre-school children immunised 922
School children immunised 159
Children attending for pre-
immunisation Schick tests 170
Number who gave positive re-action 100
Children attending for Schick tests
after being immunised 1,745
Number proving negative 1,522
Number proving positive 97
Number who failed to attend
for readings 126
Number of "re-inforcing" doses
given to immunised children 343
Enteric Fever
There was one case of typhoid fever and three cases of
paratyphoid B. fever notified during the year. All the
cases were treated in hospital, and there was no death.
The patient suffering from typhoid fever had recently
returned from a holiday on the continent.
One of the paratyphoid B. patients was a doctor in a
London hospital who was believed to have contracted the
disease in the course of his duty. The second case was
connected with osteomyelitis of the left arm and the source
of infection was not traced. The third case was a nurse in
a Kensington hospital who had nursed a Paddington child
suffering from paratyphoid B. fever. The source of the
child's infection was traced to an area in Cornwall.