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25
NOTIFICATION OF OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM.
In accordance with section 56 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891,
which empowers the Sanitary Authority of any district to make an Order
augmenting the list of Infectious Disease of which notification is required
under section 55 of the said Act, the London County Council have made such
an Order, approved by theLocal Government Board, with regard to Ophthalmia
Neonatorum, and from 13th March, 1911, failure to notify this disease will
constitute an offence under the Act.
Ophthalmia Neonatorum, or purulent conjunctivitis of the newly born,
usually develops on the second or third day after birth. Earlier cases are
attributable to a lingering labour. Material in the maternal passages
containing gonococci clings to the baby's lashes and is carried into the eye
after birth, either by blinking of eyelids or by sponges, or water, &c., employed
in the first bath. Its leading feature is a discharge, at first thin and wheylike,
and later resembling pus. As the case advances the eyelids are greatly
thickened by serous effusion, and when thus swollen they tend to become
everted when the baby cries. In this dangerous affection the cornea may be
rapidly involved. The baby in marked cases is often fretful, and diarrhœa
generally ensues. Complications include swelling of the preauricular glands,
abscesses about the eyelids, &c.
The discharge must be frequently removed by means of antiseptic lotion,
which should be applied warm to the everted conjunctiva with a piece of
absorbent cotton wool. In bad cases, constant attention day and night is
essential, as cure is dependent upon the care with which the eyes are kept
clean.
This disease, which is highly infectious, is principally confined to the
children of the poorer classes, and in the City of London only very rarely do
cases arise.
SMALLPOX.
No cases of Small-pox have occurred during the year in persons residing
in the City, but there has been one rather unusual "contact" case.
A troupe of variety artists had been touring abroad, and were playing in
November, 1909, in Warsaw, at a circus. Employed at the same circus was a
clown, who fell ill and died on the 10th November from hæmorrhagic Smallpox.
The nature of his disease does not appear to have been recognised by
the authorities, and the variety troupe, who had been in contact with the
deceased, were permitted to proceed to Dantzig in Germany, where one of their
number was taken to the hospital on the 24th November, suffering from
severe pains in the back. Here, again, the disease does not appear to have