Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
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Pneumonia
There are various forms of pneumonia, but the only kinds
notifiable are acute primary and acute influenzal. Sixtynine
notifications were received during the year, forty-four
patients being certified as suffering from acute primary
pneumonia and twenty-five from acute influenzal pneumonia.
Of these sixty-nine cases, twenty-eight were treated in hospital.
During the year, the number of deaths from pneumonia
(all forms) was eighty-two and twenty deaths were certified
as due to influenza.
Dysentery
There were eighteen cases of dysentery notified during
the year. Seventeen cases were bacillary in origin and the
majority of these were due to sonne bacillus; all cases were
of a mild type.
There was one case of amoebic dysentery, believed to
have been contracted from the patient's Anglo-Burmese wife,
from whom he was separated. The patient was believed to have
suffered from the disease for a year prior to admission to
hospital. He died three weeks after admission to hospital.
Erysipelas
Of the seventeen cases notified, four were admitted to
hospital. There were no deaths.
Cerebro-spinal meningitis
Five cases of this disease were notified during the
year, but all recovered after hospital treatment.
Malaria
Two cases of malaria were notified during the year. One
patient had a history of contracting the disease during war
service. The second patient was admitted to hospital within
a week of returning to this country from Egypt. Neither case
proved fatal.
Poliomyelitis
There were thirteen confirmed cases of acute poliomyelitis
notified during 1950, compared with forty-seven in the previous
year. All thirteen patients were treated in hospital, seven of
whom suffered with paralysis. Of these notified cases, only
one patient died.
Encephalitis lethargica
No case of encephalitis lethargica was notified during
1950.
Measles
Of the six hundred and ninety-six cases notified during
1950, sixty-six were admitted to hospital for treatment.
The only fatal case occurring during the year was a child
aged 20 months who died three days after admission to hospital.
From time to time attention has been drawn to the rise in
the number of measles cases in alternate years.