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30
SCARLET FEVER.
During the middle months of the year London as a whole experienced a
somewhat serious epidemic of Scarlet Fever.
The Authority responsible for the provision of hospital accommodation throughout
the Metropolis is the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and that body found that their
accommodation was so seriously taxed that a request was made that Medical Officers of
Health of Local Authorities within their jurisdiction, should select for removal to
hospital during the prevalence of the disease only those patients who most needed
hospital treatment.
The City in common with the rest of London was affected by the outbreak, but I
am glad to say that little difficulty was experienced in the acceptance of City cases for
hospital treatment.
This is satisfactory as it will be readily appreciated that the nursing of Scarlet
Fever patients in the homes of the majority of City residents would be attended
with considerable possibility of a spread of the infection.
The increase in City cases was in my opinion due to the opportunities which exist
for persons resident within the City coming into contact with infection outside. No
other reason has been discovered which would account for it.
THE PUBLIC HEALTH (OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM)
REGULATIONS, 1914.
Compulsory Notification of Ophthalmia Neonatorum.
By virtue of powers contained in Section 56 of the Public Health (London) Act,
1891, the London County Council obtained an Order which was approved by the Local
Government Board on December 20th, 1910, making Ophthalmia Neonatorum a
notifiable disease. This Order became operative on March 13th, 1911.
The Local Government Board have now issued an order dated February 5th, 1914,
making Ophthalmia Neonatorum a compulsory notifiable disease throughout the
Country. This order became operative on April 1st, 1914, and contains certain
requirements additional to those contained in the previous London County Council
Order.
Ophthalmia Neonatorum means a purulent discharge from the eyes of an infant,
commencing within 21 days from the date of birth. A large proportion of the blindness
contracted in childhood is due to the neglect of proper precautions against this disease.
The object of the Order is, therefore, to prevent a certain amount of this blindness by
enabling Local Authorities to take early preventive measures in respect of the cases
which are notified to them.
Notification.—In addition to compulsory notification by the Medical Practitioner,
it is now incumbent on a certified midwife to notify on a prescribed form any case of
this disease which may arise in her practice, unless the case has already been notified by
a Medical Practitioner.