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54
Polio-Myelitis.
This was the only one of the several diseases affecting the nervous system (viz.,
Polio encephalitis, Encephalitis lethargica, etc.) now notifiable, in respect of which any
notifications were received during the year. The number notified was 5 and there
were no deaths. Four of the patients were females and only one male, and with
one exception—a woman of 28—all were less than 15.
Erysipelas.
The notifications of erysipelas numbered 60, and there were 5 deaths. Most of
the cases were notified from the St. Marylebone Infirmary and the General Hospitals
and 21 patients were treated in one or other of these institutions.
Puerperal Fever.
The number of cases of this disease notified, viz., 6, was just about the average,
as was a'so the number of deaths registered as due to it, viz., 3.
In each case a visit was paid by one of the women inspectors and the premises
were disinfected.
Measles and German Measles.
These diseases remained on the list of those notified until the end of the year.
Including notifications (58) received from parents and others, the total received was
978 as against 773 in 1918. The slight increase in the number over the previous year
was due, no doubt, to the fact that the necessity for making notification was more
widely recognized, particularly by mothers. There was not, in any case, any definite
tendency for the infection to assume the epidemic proportions shown in 1917. It
was not, as a matter of fact, expected to, measles, like scarlet fever, following a
very regular course and becoming definitely epidemic only at intervals. These
intervals are generally shorter than in the case of scarlet fever—three yearly instead
of five yearly.
The deaths numbered 17, as against 11 in 1918 and 95 in 1917. The course
adopted in relation to the notified cases was the same as in the previous year.
Practically every case was visited by the Health Visitors, particular attention being
given to such as occurred in tenement houses. Under an agreement entered into
between the Council and the Paddington and Marylebone Nursing Association, the
services of a Nurse were obtained in cases in which the attack was severe. The
nurses made 622 visits to 58 cases. The amount paid by the Council for services in
connection with measles and other cases in which nursing is considered necessary is
£60 per annum.
Hospital accommodation was found for 89 of the patients.
On no occasion during the year was it considered necessary to close any school
or any department in a school on account of measles, though the bulk of the patients
were children of school age.
Whooping Cough.
Most of the information obtained with regard to this disease is derived from the
death returns, and during 1919 the number of deaths registered as due to whooping
cough was 2. In 1918 the number was 24.
The arrangements with regard to nursing and hospital isolation are similar to
those in the case of measles.
Glanders.
No case of glanders in the human being was notified during the year, and no
notices of outbreaks of the disease in stables in the Borough were received from the
London County Council. The Order making the notification of glanders compulsory
came into operation on 1st January, 1908, since when, viz., in November, 1908, only
1 case has been notified.