London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Battersea 1929

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Battersea Borough.

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31
The following is a summarised statement showing the Hospitals
and the visiting and reporting work carried out for them during
1929.

The following is a summarised statement showing the Hospitals and the visiting and reporting work carried out for them during 1929.

Ante-natal and post-natal.Other.T otal.
St. Thomas' Hospital249121370
Charing Cross Hospital2—2
General Lying-in Hospital209—209
King's College Hospital9—9
Middlesex Hospital2—2
St. George's Hospital39—39
Westminster Hospital10—10
Victoria Hospital, Chelsea—131131
St. James's Hospital—3232
Bolingbroke Hospital—11
City of London Hospital1—1
South London Hospital for Women2—2
523285808

Ante-Natal (V.D.) Clinic.
This special treatment clinic was established in connection with
the Ante-Natal Out Patient Department at the Borough Maternity
Hospital late in 1921. The Clinic is fully equipped with the necessary
requisites for diagnosis and treatment, and is under the
direction and supervision of a Specialist Consultant, Mr. Corsi,
F.R.C.S. The work carried out during 1929 is summarised in the
table on page 32.
Mr. Corsi reports :—
In 1929, 804 Wassermann Tests for Syphilis were carried out on
pregnant women attending the Clinics. This is a decrease of 130
on the previous year. Of these 13, i.e. 1.6 per cent, were found
positive. Compared with figures of this kind published for various
parts of England and other countries, this is a very low percentage,
and therefore not likely to diminish much further.
These 13 were cases of latent syphilis. All had ante-natal
treatment with excellent results.
This year it was possible to test the infant's blood in no less
than ten cases, a remarkable improvement on the previous two
years. In all ten cases the Wasserman Test proved negative.
The remaining three had no clinical evidence of syphilis, so that
it would appear that in 1929 as in 1928, so far as one can tell, no
child was born syphilitic.