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
London County Council 1953
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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19
Measles
The epidemic peak occurred at the beginning of January, and this year saw the
gradually declining incidence characteristic of the second year of the biennial cycle of
measles. The number of notifications during the 1952-53 epidemic was considerably
smaller than the two previous epidemics. Mortality from this disease continues to be
very low indeed.
Meningococcal
infections
The incidence of this infection (98 notifications) during the year was at about the
same level as during the last six years. The last epidemic years were 1940 and 1941 when
839 and 706 cases respectively were notified. During 1953 the cases occurred sporadically
throughout the year without any distinct local concentrations.
65 notifications were in children under the age of five years. Of the 21 deaths in
children under five years of age, 9 were less than a year old.
The ratio of notifications to deaths at various ages was as follows :
| Age | Deaths | Notifications | Deaths as percentage of notifications |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0-14 years | 65 | 32.2 | |
| 5-14 years | — | 19 | — |
| Over 14 years | 3 | 14 | 21.4 |
Chemotherapy produces good results in the meningeal form of this disease, but most
of the deaths in infants resulted from the fulminating septicaemic forms of the disease
for which therapy is more difficult.
Ophthalmia
neonatorum
The incidence of ophthalmia neonatorum which, since 1921, has remained fairly
constant between 8 and 10 new cases per 1,000 live births, commenced to fall slightly
towards the end of the period 1931-40 and, in recent years, has fallen to 2-4 per 1,000
live births. There were 161 cases in 1953 (3.2 per 1,000 live births) of which 146 were
those in which the mother was a resident of the County of London; full details of the
latter are shown below :
| Number of cases | Domiciliary confinements | Institutional confinements | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notified during the year . . | 40 | 106 | 146 |
| Removed to hospital for special treatment | 10 | 11 | 21 |
The condition at the end of the year of the 146 cases was :
| (a) Vision unimpaired | 141 |
| (b) Vision impaired | — |
| (c) Vision lost .. | — |
| (d) Died | — |
| (e) Under treatment .. | — |
| (f) Removed from the County | 5 |
| 146 |
Pneumonia
Notified cases of pneumonia in 1953 numbered 2,434 or 0.728 per 1,000 compared
with 0.567 in 1952 and 0.717 per 1,000 in 1951. This disease is considerably undernotified,
particularly at ages over 65, and it is believed that over the whole age-range
only about one-quarter to one-third of the total cases are notified. There is, however,
no reason to believe that this fraction varies from year to year so that the notifications
may still be used as a relative index of incidence. It will be seen from Table 14 (page 155)
that the 1953 notification rate was a little lower than war-time. (See page 12 for
comment on the death-rate.)
Poliomyelitis
The number of confirmed notifications of poliomyelitis (332) was about the same
as in 1952, and considerably lower than in the epidemic years 1947, 1949 and 1950.