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one had become ambulant with moderate paralysis, three had
only very slight residual paralysis and four had completely
recovered.
Cases occurred in most of the Wards in the District, Old
Coulsdon, however, having rather more than the average, and
they were distributed among six different hospitals. The advice
which was given and the precautions taken were similar to
those advocated or adopted in previous years, but in addition,
reinforcing diphtheria immunisation treatment was temporarily
postponed.
PNEUMONIA.
During 1950 a total of 23 cases of acute primary or
influenzal pneumonia were notified, compared with 5, 13 and
20 in the preceding three years.
The cases, which included 7 of school age, were, however,
scattered thoughout the year and over the District, only 2 of
them being in any way connected with another case. Three
of them were admitted to hospital.
Altogther 21 deaths were registered as being due to some
form of pneumonia, but no deaths occurred among the notified
cases.
MEASLES.
Comparatively few cases of measles occurred until October,
but they increased rapidly in the last two months of the year,
a total of 477 being notified, compared with 600, 567, 141 and
705 in the preceding 4 years. The lull between the extreme ends
of the last wave and the present one was 14 months, during
which less than 10 cases a month were notified, but the intervals
between the peaks was about 2 years.
The first impact of the present wave was in Sanderstead
quickly followed by Coulsdon West, the 5-10 year age group
being chiefly affected. Fortunately the disease has been of a
fairly mild type with few complications, hence the number of
children of 2 years and under who suffered, which was comparatively
small, was of less importance than usual.
While the payment of the full notification fee in respect
of cases of measles and whooping cough has given a more
complete picture of the numbers affected, it has made preventive
work even less practicable than hitherto. Faced with some 200
notifications a month the Health Visitors can only visit a small
proportion of them, focusing their attention on the youngest
children and the most negligent families.
The position has changed with the implementation of the
National Health Service Act in that private doctors are now
called in more frequently and earlier, while modern methods
of treatment reduce the risks and combat the results of
complications.
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