View report page

strain of organism is apparently endemic in the London area, as the very
few isolated cases which were notified in that area had not partaken of
anything in common, nor as far as could be traced had they been associated
with each other. The local patient recovered in hospital. The other
notified case was a paratyphoid B. infection affecting an inmate of one
of the mental hospitals were 2 deaths from this disease occurred during
the year.
Dysentery.
The number of cases of dysentery notified increased again, from 48
in 1947 to 71 in 1948, but only one of these was a normal resident in the
District, viz., a child who, as a result of a pathological examination in
February, was diagnosed as suffering from Sonne dysentery.
The other cases were of the Flexner type and all occurred in the mental
hospitals (68 in one and 2 in the other), one death resulting. As has
been previously stated, once such cases become numerous in a mental
hospital, as occurred in war-time when, in the year 1941 alone, 224 cases
were notified, it is very difficult indeed to eradicate it. Gradually,
however, though erratically, the number of cases is falling locally. Of the
68 cases in one of the mental hospitals, 40 occurred in August, only one
or two cases occurring in each of the last three months of the year.
Cerebro-Spinal Fever.
Only one notification of this disease was received and unfortunately
this was based on the post-mortem findings on a resident who died in
hospital during January.
Poliomyelitis.
Only two cases of poliomyelitis were notified as having occurred in
the District during 1948 as compared with 11 definite cases in 1947.
The former is about the average number which has occurred locally each
year since 1937. Of these two cases one was a young child with suggestive
symptoms, but no paralysis, and the other a young adult with extensive
paralysis for which he was still in hospital at the end of the year, although
slowly improving.
Pneumonia.
The number of cases of acute primary or influenzal pneumonia
notified dropped from 20 in 1947 to 13, this being less than the average
occurring during recent years. The cases were apparently unconnected
and scattered over the District. Nine of the cases were young children,
the others being mostly elderly adults. Four of the cases were admitted
to hospital, one being originally thought to be a case of scarlet fever. A
total of 24 deaths from all forms of pneumonia occurred in the District
during the year, but it is believed that no death occurred in respect of the
13 notified cases.
20