London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Barking 1947

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Barking]

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18
There is a definite field for this specialisation; firstly—because children cannot
help the doctor to make a diagnosis in the way that adults can, and therefore require
an altogether different technique of examination from that of adults, and secondly—
many diseases which are common both to children and adults run a different course
in children than in adults. To give one simple little illustration of this I mention
that where it would be quite usual for an adult to have a shivering attack at the
commencement of a chill a child does not commonly so shiver but alternatively
suffers from what is known as a fit. Thirdly, of course, there are certain diseases
which although not uncommon among the adult population may be said to be
children's diseases.
What happens in Barking is that the Assistant Medical Officers send cases to
the particular clinic where there attends a Consultant Paediatrician. We very
carefully see that this Clinic is held at the Barking Hospital so that the services of
this specialist may be available for the very young babies in the hospital so well as
those who are older.
At this Clinic, whenever possible, an Assistant Medical Officer attends, not
only to facilitate the work at the Clinic but to be a link between the Specialist
Services and the general work which is carried out at your clinics and your schools.
This Assistant Medical Officer is changed from time to time but we find it
advantageous to have one particular Medical Officer in attendance for several weeks.
Your Consultant Paediatrician saw 115 children during the year 1947.
INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
Question:—To what extent, if any, is infectious disease spread by
children being at school ?
Answer:—In the sense that being born may facetiously be spoken of as the
first stage in contracting infectious disease, so also does school life, no doubt, add
in some ways to the danger of catching an
infectious disease, but this is not merely
because the child goes to school but because
the child is getting to an age when—quite
normally—he or she would be running
about more with other children.
Some years ago a very learned man
wrote a paper and from the figures he
produced proved, to his own satisfaction,
that a child in an Infectious Disease
Hospital was less likely to catch an infectious
disease than a child outside. I was

Infectious Diseases

Scarlet Fever71
Whooping Cough85
Measles264
Diphtheria4
Pneumonia12
Poliomyelitis (both nonparalytic)2