View report page

93
Ophthalmia Neonatorum.
Great care is exercised in all cases of doubtful or suspected
and real ophthalmia neonatorum, which is the chief cause of
blindness. During the year 1937, 55 cases were notified as
compared with annual averages of 72.8 and 56.2 for the 10 years
1911-1920 and 1921-1930 respectively. Formerly this disease was
notifiable by midwives as well as by medical practitioners with
the result that many cases were "missed" and precautionary
measures were consequently unable to be taken.
Cases
Vision
Unimpaired
Vision
Impaired
Total
Blindness
Deaths
Notified
Treated
At Home
In Hospital
55
49
6
55
-
-
-
Sonne Dysentery.
In the early autumn a number of cases of diarrhoea enteritis or
dysentery were reported and it became clear that an outbreak of
a mild form of dysentery was in progress. From a few cases here
and there the Sonne bacillus was recovered from the faeces, but
the number constituted a small fraction of those who suffered with
like symptoms of varying degrees of severity with no bacteriological
confirmation. Among the staff of one large hospital from three
cases only the bacillus was recovered, fifteen others were off duty
for short periods, many others reported sick but carried on, while
a still larger number were suspected of having had mild symptoms
but did not report sick. The picture of the hospital epidemic
seemed to describe more or less what was happening among the
general population among whom occasional cases are still occurring.
It may be interpolated that bacteriological confirmation is by no
means easy and failure is frequent, so that a negative report is of