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
City of Westminster 1926
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]
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21
PREVALENCE OF AND CONTROL OVER INFECTIOUS
DISEASES.
The following table shows the number of cases of infectious disease
which came to the notice of the department during the period 1922-1926.
Details respecting the notifications of infectious disease received are
set out on the adjoining page.
Table XXII.
| 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Small-pox | - | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| Diphtheria | 285 | 91 | 237 | 286 | 223 |
| Erysipelas | 37 | 34 | 29 | 44 | 44 |
| Scarlet fever | 261 | 129 | 226 | 214 | 132 |
| Enteric fever | 12 | 18 | 15 | 17 | 11 |
| Continued fever | - | - | — | — | — |
| Puerperal fever | 7 | 3 | 10 | 6 | 5 |
| Puerperal pyrexia | — | — | — | — | 7 |
| Cerebro-spinal meningitis | 4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| Encephalitis lethargica | 2 | 2 | 15 | 7 | 5 |
| Polio-myelitis | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 |
| Ophthalmia neonatorum | 25 | 32 | 23 | 21 | 16 |
| Measles | 591 | 131 | 852 | 117 | 1,026 |
| German measles | 11 | 42 | 34 | 117 | 14 |
| Pneumonia | 48 | 60 | 92 | 58 | 69 |
| Malaria | - | — | 1 | 1 | — |
| Dysentery | — | — | — | 3 | — |
| Anthrax | 1 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Chicken-pox | 178 | 169 | 89 | 149 | 198 |
| Mumps | 25 | 95 | 147 | 120 | 64 |
| Whooping-cough | 67 | 35 | 97 | 255 | 46 |
Small-pox.—No cases of this disease were notified in Westminster
during the year. Information was received from the various Port Sanitary
Authorities of 156 contacts. A considerable number of these were
students from South Africa visiting this country on holiday—one of
whom had succumbed to small-pox in a Continental port. The names of
all contacts are circulated by the Port Sanitary Authorities to the various
districts to which they intend to proceed, but this only applies to
persons remaining on the vessel until it reaches a port in this country.
The contacts who leave the ship en route and proceed overland are entirely
lost sight of and cannot be traced.
| Primary | 1,306 |
| Secondary | 51 |
These figures do not include vaccinations and re-vaccinations done
by private practitioners. No vaccination was done by the Medical
Officer of Health under the Public Health (Small-pox Protection Regulations,
1917).