View report page

16
WADDON (ISOLATION) HOSPITAL.
Admission of Infectious Cases to Waddon Hospital in 1950.
I am indebted lo Dr. J. Linehan for the following report on
infectious cases admitted to the Waddon Hospital during 1950:—
Poliomyelitis proved to be the most serious infectious disease
encountered during 1950. The diagnosis was confirmed in 29
cases, of whom 28 were admitted from the Croydon Borough.
Cases commenced to occur in June and continued till the end of
the year. The epidemic was second in severity only to that of
1947. Five of the 28 Croydon cases were non-paralytic. In a
further five cases with spinal paralysis and in two encephalitis
cases complete recovery occurred whilst in Waddon Hospital.
Of the remaining 16 cases, 6 were fatal, 9 were either discharged
or transferred with residual paralysis for further treatment, and
one remains in hospital with persisting respiratory paralysis. In
seven of the surviving cases, residual paralysis could be described
as extensive. Ten patients required treatment in a respirator,
including five of the fatal cases. In the fatal cases the causes of
death were as follows: bulbar paralysis—one case; combined
bulbar and respiratory paralysis—four cases; encephalitis and
respiratory paralysis—one case. All fatal cases had also extensive
paralysis of the trunk and limbs. Thus, though in an appreciable
proportion of patients paralysis was absent or transient, in the
remainder it tended to be .generalised and frequently fatal.
Scarlet Fever wats prevalent in the early part of the year when
a number of severer cases with a higher incidence of complications
were encountered. Other fever hospitals had a similar experience.
Complications included one fatal case of urajmia following scarlet
fever nephritis and one case of brain abscess in a late admission.
The total number of admissions was 455 (seven cases more than
in the previous year). The diagnosis was confirmed in 434 cases,
of whom 414 were from the Croydon Borough.
IIhooping Cough.— There were 51 patients admitted for this
disease, in 41 of whom the diagnosis was confirmed. There was
one fatal case—a seven-weeks-old babv. 1 consider that the use
of streptomycin in whooping cough broncho-pneumonia helped
to achieve a mortality lower than had previously been experienced
in a comparable number of admissions. Chloramphenicol was
given in a few cases, but was generally unavailable for whooping
cough cases during 1950.