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
Beckenham 1925
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Beckenham]
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46
The following table gives some particulars relating to contacts,
carriers, and the number of home contacts who received a prophylactic
injection of anti-toxin. The figures for the War years are
not available.
Diphtheria Statistics.
| 1911 | 1912 | 1913 | 1914 | 1919 | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. of Cases notified | 67 | 71 | 79 | 98 | 42 | 59 | 32 | 23 | 15 | 18 | 11 |
| „ „ houses infected | 55 | 67 | 67 | 88 | 37 | 51 | 27 | 19 | 10 | 17 | 11 |
| „ ,, contacts in the home | 270 | 428 | 309 | 465 | 168* | 264 | 158 | 175 | 63 | 96 | 80 |
| „ „ "home contacts" examined bacteriologically | 140 | 352 | 266 | 306 | 109* | 192 | 61 | 98 | 29 | 64 | 65 |
| No. of "contact carriers'' | 22 | 17 | 12 | 32 | 0 | 8 | 7 | 12 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| „ „ contacts injected with Antitoxin | 115 | 250 | 193 | 251 | 32 | 37 | 57 | 37 | 25 | 29 | 17 |
*These numbers do not include 98 "School Contacts" amongst whom
12 carriers were found.
The practice of using Anti-toxin as a prophylactic is on the
decline, and our experience is that it is not a reliable preventive.
Schick Test.—No suitable opportunity for using this test
occurred during the year. This method of detecting those susceptible
to Diphtheria and immunizing them by injection of toxinanti-toxin
mixture has only been tried on one occasion in the
District, viz., in 1922, in a large private school for boys. To carry
out this method properly demands a large amount of time and
requires the services of one person for a considerable period.
TYPHOID AND PARATYPHOID FEVER.—Five cases of
Typhoid Fever—1 male and 4 females—were notified during the year.
This number compares with ft in 1924, 7 in 1923, 4 in 1922, and 4
in 1921.
The ages of those attacked were: Females 5, 23, 35, and 36
years respectively, and one male aged 20 years. One case, a female
aged 36 years, terminated fatally