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
Holborn 1927
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Holborn Borough]
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63
[n view of the satisfactory results obtained by R. A. O'Brien in the Holborn
(Poor-law) schools, arrangements were made in 1922 to render the measure
available for the general child population of Holborn. The results obtained are
summarised in Tables I., II., and III.
The results of the Schick testing were very much the same as those found in all other
urban areas; we have, however, analysed them in connection with the immunity to diphtheria
of various members of the families dealt with. The last column in Table IV shows the
number of exceptions (9.2 per cent.) to the expectation that positive reactions will be
manifested only in the younger members.
TABLE IV.
| No. of children in family. | No of families. | Of which the members are— | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Schick positive. | All Schick negative. | One or more elders negative, younger positive. | One or more elders positive, younger negative. | ||
| 2 | 146 | 112 | 10 | 17 | 7 |
| 3 | 60 | 35 | 5 | 14 | 6 |
| 4 | 19 | 8 | — | 6 | 5 |
| 5 | 10 | 2 | — | 5 | 3 |
| 6 | 3 | 1 | — | 2 | |
| 7 | 2 | — | — | 1 | 1 |
| — | 240 | 158 | 15 | 45 | 22 |
In one family of five children, twins (F.) of 2-3 years of age were both positive; of twins
of 7-8 years, one (M.) was positive, the other (F.) was negative.
In one family of three children one twin (M.) was negative, the other (F.) waa positive;
the latter had already been in hospital with diphtheria.
In another family, twins, one male aged 2 years when tested and one female aged 6
years when tested were both Schick positive.
In one family of five, all Schick positive to the first test, two members were found to be
Schick positive to the second test. The first of these (F. 4) was immunised some months