View report page

DIPHTHERIA.
Only two definite cases were notified during the year, and one of
these developed the disease during a lengthy stay in a London
hospital. In no previous year since the disease was notifiable has the
number of cases notified been so few.
SCARLET FEVER.
The incidence was low, the number of cases notified being
42 compared with 41 in 1945. The infection was mild in all cases.
PARATYPHOID FEVER.
Three cases were notified. Two cases definitely contracted the
disease abroad and were already ill when they returned to this
country. The source of infection in the third case was not discovered.
OTHER DISEASES NOTIFIED.
Measles (257 cases) was prevalent in Central Beckenham during
the last two months of the year. There is still no sign of a reappearance
of the pre-war regular periodicity. Whooping Cough
(82 cases) occurred mostly in the Kent House, Manor House and
Eden Park Wards during the first half of the year.
PUERPERAL PYREXIA.
Twenty-three cases were notified. Of these, nineteen occurred
in the Beckenham & Penge Joint Maternity Hospital, and four in
other institutions.
Detailed reports were received of fifteen of the cases. The
conditions to which the pyrexia was attributed were:—
Urinary Infections 4
Mastitis 4
Mammary Abscess 1
Phlebitis 1
Lymphatic infection—white leg 1
Sapraemia 1
Pleurisy 1
No cause discovered 2
BACTERIOLOGICAL WORK.

OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM. No cases were notified.
24