London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Stoke Newington 1927
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Stoke Newington, The Metropolitan Borough]
This page requires JavaScript
730
It is important to note that all cases fulfilling these conditions
must be notified, even although in the judgment of the attending
physician the temperature bears no relation to the puerperal state.
Five cases were notified, all of them from hospitals. One was
attributed to lobar pneumonia, another to a heavy "cold."
Influenza.— Of the 27 deaths attributed to Pneumonia
complicating this disease, 10 were in persons aged 45 to 65, and
15 in persons over 65. Although in the recent inter-epidemic
period there has been a higher proportion of deaths amongst older
patients than during the great pandemics of 1918-19, in view of the
almost entire lack of any deaths under 45 it may be doubted whether
some of these cases were not other forms of Pneumonia.
Ophthalmia Neonatorum .— All the cases were investigated and followed up, all were mild cases; one was treated at the Maternity Hospital in which it was born.
| Cases | Vision unimpaired. | Vision impaired | Total Blind ness. | Deaths. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notified. | Treated. | |||||
| At Home. | In Hospital. | |||||
| 7 | 6 | 1 | 7 | — | — | — |
Encephalitis Lethargica.— Two adult cases were notified.
Of these, one has been placed in a home for the mentally feeble,
the other died.
Measles.— Measles was prevalent during a part of the year
but there is no exact measure of its incidence since it is not notifiable.
From data supplied by the School Medical Officer of the London
County Council, the case rate was very low amongst the children
of the Elementary Schools during both the summer and winter
terms of 1927. Records are not available for the Spring term.
There was one death attributed to this disease.
Earlier mention has been made (p. 693) of the new policy of
the Metropolitan Asylums Board, whereby measles cases may
ordinarily be sent into their Infectious Disease Hospitals. With the
existing overcrowding of so many families, this represents a notable
advance in policy.