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OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM.
This disease is notifiable in London under section 55 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
the London County Council having by resolution in 1911 made this section applicable to the
disease.
By the Public Health (Ophthalmia Neonatorum) Regulations, 1914, midwives as well as doctors
were required to notify the disease to the Medical Officer of Health. This duty cast upon midwives
was found to be superfluous, in view of their duty to notify the local supervising authority under the
Midwives Acts of the condition as well. By amending regulations made by the Minister of Health
and coming into effect on October 1st, 1926, midwives were no longer called upon to notify ophthalmia
neonatorum to the Medical Officer of Health.
Sixteen cases of purulent eye-discharge of the new-born were notified in 1926, all by medical
practitioners. In no instance was there any permanent impairment of vision, so far as could be
ascertained. When one considers that this disease was at one time a common cause of life-long
blindness, the above results, which are now usual, are a striking example of how much good may
result from organised and persistent efforts directed against an easily controlled disease. As soon
as a case of this disease is notified, intensive efforts are made by the Council's staff to ensure that
proper treatment is carried out. Daily visits are paid and private or charitable medical treatment
is invariably enforced. Where necessary the infant and its mother are removed to a hospital, provision
of this accommodation being ample. All necessary nursing attention is given by home visiting on
the part of the Paddington and St. Marylebone District Nursing Association.
A few cases of slight discharge from the eyes of infants reported by midwives to the London
County Council are referred to this Department and receive constant attention, no doubt preventing
at times the onset of the more severe form of the disease.
During 1926, 6 cases were referred to the District Nursing Association, 250 visits being paid.
Seven cases of ophthalmia of the new-born were treated in hospitals as in-patients.
PUERPERAL FEVER.
There were 14 cases of puerperal fever notified during 1926, 12 of which were removed to or
nursed in a hospital. There is no difficulty in obtaining institutional treatment for women suffering
from this disease. Cases of puerperal fever referred to the Metropolitan Asylums Board are concentrated
as far as practicable in three institutions, namely, the Eastern Hospital, Homerton, the
North-Western Hospital, Hampstead, and the South-Western Hospital, Stockwell, where special
wards are set aside for these cases and special medical and nursing staffs provided. The Board have
also provided an obstetric consultant at these three institutions.
Paddington mothers go, as a rule, to the North-Western Hospital, Hampstead, which is within
easy reach of the Borough.
Five women were certified as having died from puerperal fever.