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Meningococcal infection
Three cases of this disease were notified during the year and
all were removed to hospital. No deaths were reported.
Malaria
Five cases of malaria were reported during the year, but
investigations showed that the patients had all recently returned from
abroad, and presumably had contracted the infection overseas.
Poliomyelitis
There were fifteen cases of acute poliomyelitis notified and
confirmed during the year; thirteen of the cases showed symptoms of
paralysisc There was one death from this disease during the year.

Contacts of all cases notified were kept under surveillance
for twenty-one days, (or until the diagnosis was changed in unconfirmed
cases,,) There were twenty-nine suspected cases removed to hospital,
where the diagnosis was not confirmed. In each instance an advisory
pamphlet was issued setting out the elementary precautions to be taken.
Kensington residents, who were contacts of cases occurring outside the
borough, were also kept under observation.
During the year, no multiple cases within single families
occurred. Although the proportion of paralytic cases appears high, it
should be remembered that paralysis is defined as muscular weakness
however transient or slight. In general this year, the cases were mild
in character. However, one woman aged 45 years died of paralytic
poliomyelitis five days after onset of the disease and three days after
admission to hospital.
Investigation in the field concerning the possible association
between inoculation against other diseases and the contraction of
poliomyelitis was discontinued by the Medical Research Council. However,
with the advent of inoculations against poliomyelitis itself, the public
health department has been working closely with the London County Council.
One case of paralytic poliomyelitis, (slight transient muscular weakness
only), who fell ill in January, had been inoculated six months earlier.
It was clear that the inoculation was not responsible for the disease.
Acute encephalitis
Three cases of this disease were notified in the borough during
1957. No deaths occurred.
Measles
Of the nine hundred and eighty-two cases notified during
1957, nineteen were admitted to hospital for treatment. The death of
an elderly person from myocarditis associated with measles occurred
during the year.
Ophthalmia neonatorum
Only one case of this disease was notified. The patient was
treated in hospital and recovered without injury to sight.