London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Ealing 1926

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Ealing]

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—33—
Scarlet Fever.—There were 156 cases of scarlet fever notified.
In Table V the number is compared with the numbers in the previous
years for the area of the old Borough, and in Table VI the distribution
of the cases throughout the year is indicated. It will be
seen that the largest number of cases occurred in the month of
May, the same month in which the highest number of cases of
diphtheria occurred, and the smallest number in August.
No deaths occurred from the disease which was of a very
mild type. It is worth noting that the death-rate from scarlet
fever for England and Wales and for London was 0.02 per
1,000 of population, compared with the absence of deaths in
Ealing.
To prevent, as far as possible, the occurrence of "return"
cases of scarlet fever, children discharged from the Isolation Hospital
are visited at their homes by tne Health Visitors for 14 days after
in order that the onset of sores, or nasal or ear discharge
may be noted. When these are found the re-admission of the child
to school' is postponed until the condition has disappeared. In
connection with the supervision of these cases the Health Visitors
made 120 visits to the homes.
Enteric Fever.—The notifications under this head comprised
one case of true enteric fever in a child 4i yeais of age, and three
cases of paratyphoid "B" fever in two girls, 14 and 16 years of
age respectively, and one boy 13 years of age. Three of the cases
were evidently infected outside the district but the fourth case
occurred locally without the actual source of infection being discovered.
All four were mild cases which were nursed at home.
They all had an uninterrupted recovery,
Encephalitis Lethargic a.—Two cases of encephalitis lethargica
were notified during the year. One was a child two years and
eight months old who died eight days after the onset of the disease.
The other was a man 22 years of age who was able to perform his
work a month after and who, two months later, was reported to be
perfectly well. There was no discoverable relationship between the
two cases which were separated in onset by an interval of six weeks,