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of cases death occurred before admission to hospital could be arranged, but this was
due to the rapidity of the disease more than to delay in seeking hospital admission.
A finding of some interest was that in the fatal cases investigated only 15 per cent.
were proved to be meningococcal in origin, although there had been a report of
intracellular organisms in a further 12 per cent.
Ophthalmia
neonatorum
The incidence of ophthalmia neonatorum, which since 1921 had 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 between 2 and 4
per 1,000 live births. There were 83 cases in 1956 (1.59 per 1,000 hve births) in 75 of
which the mother was a resident of the County of London; full details of the latter
are shown below:
Domiciliary Institutional
Number of cases confinements confinements Total
Notified during the year 26 49 75
Removed to hospital for special treatment 1 3 4
Of the 75 cases, vision was unimpaired in 61, one died, three were under treatment
at the end of the year and the remaining 10 moved from the district: of the three
under treatment at the end of the preceding year vision was unimpaired.
Pneumonia
There was a fall in the number of notifications of pneumonia from 1,903 in 1955
to 1,633 in 1956. Only acute primary pneumonia and acute influenzal pneumonia are
notifiable, so this figure represents only a part of the total incidence of pneumonia.
The notification of pneumonia is of somewhat doubtful value, but it is found that the
level of notification varies with the incidence of influenza in the population and a rise
in the notification of pneumonia is sometimes an early sign of the beginning of an
epidemic of influenza.
Poliomyelitis