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
Barking 1938
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Barking]
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teachers and school attendance officers. The names
and addresses of children who are absent from school
on account of non-notifiable communicable diseases
are supplied by the school attendance officers on forms
specially provided for the purpose, and the homes of
the cases are visited by officers of the Department.
The following table shows briefly the number of children notified and reported suffering from some of the commoner infectious diseases during the past five years:—
| 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scarlet Fever | 313 | 274 | 224 | 158 | 151 |
| Diphtheria | 247 | 174 | 86 | 110 | 106 |
| Measles and German Measles | 467 | 29 | 570 | 62 | 573 |
| Chicken-pox | 320 | 178 | 132 | 220 | 53 |
| Whooping Cough | 87 | 79 | 149 | 39 | 55 |
| Mumps | 39 | 30 | 18 | 180 | 114 |
In connection with the above, it has not been
necessary to close any school or school department
during the year.
Immunisation Treatment.—Your service includes
immunisation for diphtheria, scarlet fever and whooping
cough, and although attendance is fairly good at these
clinics, I should be glad to see more parents taking
advantage of this service, particularly in the case of
children within the early school age-group.
During the year we were asked to undertake mass
immunisation at the St. Joseph's and St. Ethelburga's
Schools. This was done, and three weekly injections
of anti-diphtheritic serum were given to 260 children
out of a total of about 480 children attending the
Schools. These were followed after a period of three
months by the appropriate Schick Test to verify the
result obtained.