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As in previous years, contacts of cases were kept under
supervision for twenty-one days from the last date of contact.
Eight hundred and ninety-six visits by sanitary inspectors and
two hundred and thirty-four other enquiries were made for this
purpose,,
During the year, the attention of the Public Health
Committee was called to an unsatisfactory feature concerning
the isolation and treatment of patients. Of the twenty-one
cases notified, one (a child) was nursed at home and four
others were retained in general hospitals. Indeed, three of
these four were nursed in children's hospitals. Endeavours
were made to secure the removal of these cases to an infectious
diseases hospital without success.
The facts were reported to the Ministry of Health with
the object of securing the Ministry's co-operation in
requiring the removal of acute poliomyelitis patients from
general hospitals to isolation hospitals, as it would appear
that the provisions of the Public Health (London) Act, 1936,
relating to dangerous infectious diseases do not apply to
this disease,.
During the year, the Public Health Department continued
to co-operate with the Medical Research Council on two separate
poliomyelitis investigations. One of these projects is
concerned with the possible association between inoculations
and operations and the contraction of the disease, and the
other is a wider investigation involving a comparison between
the histories of child sufferers and those for selected
healthy children of the same age group9 etc.
Acute encephalitis
Three cases of acute encephalitis were notified during
1952. One was of the post-infectious type following an
attack of shingles, whilst the other two cases were of the
infective type. All the patients recovered after hospital
treatment.
Measles
Of the eight hundred and thirty-one cases notified during
1952, there was only one death from measles. The number of
the cases admitted to hospital for treatment was ninety-three.
Ophthalmia neonatorum
Two cases of this disease were notified, both of which
were treated at home and recovered without any injury to
sight.
Gastro-enteritis
This disease is notifiable in children up to the age of
five years. Thirty cases were reported during the year,
nineteen of which were removed to hospital for treatment.
There were six deaths of children under five years from
gastritis, enteritis or diarrhoea.
Scabies
The number of notifications of this disease during 1952
was only twenty-six, which compares with thirty-four in the
previous year and four hundred and sixty-three in the peak
year of 1946.