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 1957
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Kensington Borough]
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- 66 -
Gastro-enteritis
This disease is notifiable in children up to the age of five
years. The number of cases reported during the year was ten. Three
were removed to hospital for treatment. Three deaths of children under
five years of age were recorded as due to gastritis, enteritis or
diarrhoea.
Scabies
The number of cases of scabies notified during 1957 was
fifty-two, which compares with four hundred and sixty-three notified in
the peak year of 1946.
Tuberculosis
During the year two hundred and eight new cases of tuberculosis
were notified, of which one hundred and ninety-two were respiratory and
sixteen 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 | P | ||
| On register of notifications on 1st January, 1957 | 826 | 688 | 71 | 95 | 1,680 |
| Notified for the first time during the year | 101 | 91 | 7 | 9 | 208 |
| Brought to notice other than by notification | 90 | 67 | 5 | 5 | 167 |
| Removed from register on account of having- | |||||
| (a) recovered from the disease | 24 | 16 | 3 | 4 | 47 |
| (b) removed from district lost sight of, etc. | 166 | 127 | 8 | 17 | 318 |
| (c) died | 21 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 29 |
| Remaining on register on 31st December, 1957 | 806 | 698 | 70 | 87 | 1,661 |
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, three hundred and forty-five visits were paid
to the homes of tuberculous patients. In two hundred and nine of these,
the environmental conditions were such as to require no further action on
the part of the public health department; in a further fifty-one cases,
it was found that the patients had moved away, and in forty-one 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 action
taken in the remaining forty-four cases is summarised as follows:-