London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Kensington 1956
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
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Ophthalmia neonatorum
Only one case of this disease was notified. The patient was
treated at home and recovered without injury to sight.
Gastro-enteritis
This disease is notifiable in children up to the age of five
years. The number of cases reported during the year was fourteen.
Five were removed to hospital for treatment. One death of a child under
five years of age was recorded as due to gastritis, enteritis or diarrhoea.
Scabies
The number of cases of scabies notified during 1956 was forty,
which compares with four hundred and sixty-three notified in the peak
year of 1946.
Tuberculosis
During the year two hundred and fifty-eight new cases of
tuberculosis were notified, of which two hundred and thirty-four were
respiratory and twenty-four non-respiratory cases.
The following table shows the number of cases added to and the number removed from the notification register during the year :-
| Description | Respiratory | Non Respiratory | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | F | M | F | ||
| On register of notifications on 1st January, 1956 | 840 | 699 | 75 | 95 | 1,709 |
| Notified for the first time during the year | 130 | 104 | 10 | 14 | 258 |
| Brought to notice other than by notification | 96 | 80 | 1 | 6 | 183 |
| Removed from register on account of having - | |||||
| (a) recovered from the disease | 25 | 20 | 1 | 4 | 50 |
| (b) removed from district lost sight of, etc. | 192 | 162 | 14 | 14 | 382 |
| (c) died Remaining on register on | 23 | 13 | - | 2 | 38 |
| 31st December, 1956 | 826 | 688 | 71 | 95 | 1,680 |
The system of investigation into the environmental conditions
of tuberculous patients continued during the year. All newly notified
cases and those cases transferring into Kensington or changing their
address in the borough, have been visited by the public health inspectors
with the objects of tracing the source of infection, preventing the spread
of infection and removing conditions favourable to infection. Particular
attention was given to the home conditions in addition to the dissemination
of advice to prevent the transmission of infection to contacts.
During the year, four hundred and seventy-six visits were paid
to the homes of tuberculous patients. In two hundred and ninety-seven
of these, the environmental conditions were such as to require no further
action on the part of the public health department; in a further one
hundred cases, it was found that the patients had moved away, and in
thirty other cases the investigations were postponed as the patients were
away in hospital or had not been contacted by the end of the year. The