Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]
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28
B.- Communicable Diseases.
Details respecting the notifications of infectious disease received are
set out on the adjoining page.
The following summary shows the number of cases which came to the notice of the Department in the last three years.
1922. | 1923. | 1924. | 1922. | 1923. | 1924. | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Small-pox | 1 | ] | Ophthalmia neonatorum | 25 | 32 | _ | |
Diphtheria | 285 | 91 | 237 | Measles | 591 | 131 | — |
Erysipelas | 37 | 34 | 29 | German measles | 11 | 42 | 34 |
Scarlet fever | 261 | 129 | 226 | Pneumonia | 48 | 60 | 92 |
Enteric fever | 12 | 18 | 15 | Malaria | _ | — | 1 |
Continued fever | — | — | — | Dysentery | — | — | — |
Puerperal fever | 7 | 3 | 10 | Anthrax | 1 | — | 1 |
Cerebro-spinal meningitis | 4 | 1 | 3 | Chicken-pox | 178 | 169 | 89 |
Mumps | 25 | 95 | 147 | ||||
Encephalitis lethargica | 2 | 2 | 15 | Whooping cough | 67 | 35 | 97 |
Polio-myelitis | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Smallpox.This disease continued to increase in amount in 1924
in the Midlands and the North of England. The number of cases in each
of the last 8 years is given as :-
191 7 7
191 8 63
191 9 311
1920 280
1921 336
1922 973
1923 2,504
1924 3,784
The disease continues to be of a mild type with a low mortality (13
deaths only in 1924), very different from the type which has been introduced
into London and elsewhere from Spain and the East on several
occasions in which a third of the cases proved fatal. With a large number
of persons unprotected by vaccination, if it were not for the promptness
and co-operation of medical officers of health, serious epidemics would
have occurred instead of which the outbreaks in London and its neighbourhood
have been limited to a few cases.
Cases of this disease caused some anxiety on several occasions, but
one only was notified in Westminster. This was in the person of a valet
whose home is in Westminster, he had been travelling in Spain and on
his arrival attended and carried out his duties for a few days at a large
hotel until he developed a rash which was at once diagnosed. He had
been in contact at home and at the hotel with between 200 and 300 people.
Fortunately nearly all had been re-vaccinated and the remainder were
promptly done, and no other case occurred.
A second case was that of a man, a resident of New York who had
been making a tour of the world. He made the voyage from Bombay to
Marseilles on board a ship in which, it was later discovered, there had been