London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Chislehurst 1958
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Chislehurst]
This page requires JavaScript
70
SECTION F.
PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER
INFECTIOUS AND OTHER DISEASES.
General.
Three hundred and eighty-seven notifications of infectious
diseases, excluding tuberculosis, were received in 1958, compared
with 1,954 in the previous year. This is one of the smallest totals
on record.
The main factor contributing to this big drop in notifications
was the light incidence of measles. This is usually anticipated
after an epidemic year and, in fact, only 145 cases were reported
compared with 1,448 in 1957.
Whooping Cough, Food Poisoning and Dysentery also
compared favourably with the previous year and the infectious
diseases in general again showed the mild characteristics noticed in
recent years.
Reference to individual diseases will be found under the
separate headings.
Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis.
Seven cases were notified during 1958, four of these being
paralytic and three non-paralytic, and all were admitted to hospital.
No deaths from this disease were recorded in the Urban District
during the year under review.
The County Medical Officer has kindly supplied the following figures which show the number of residents in the Urban District who were vaccinated against poliomyelitis during 1958:—
| Year of Birth. | Given two injections. | Given third injection. |
|---|---|---|
| 1958 | 167 | — |
| 1957 | 980 | 34 |
| 1956 | 960 | 143 |
| 1955 | 971 | 125 |
| 1954 | 919 | 119 |
| 1953 | 859 | 111 |
| 1952 | 801 | 107 |
| 1951 | 810 | 134 |
| 1950 | 551 | 167 |
| 1949 | 467 | 153 |
| 1948 | 535 | 185 |
| 1947 | 576 | 167 |
| 1946 | 1,304 | 33 |
| 1945 | 994 | 17 |
| 1944 | 996 | 7 |
| Others | 1,739 | 54 |
| 13,629 | 1,556 |