London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Orpington 1957
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Orpington]
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50
SECTION F.
PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER INFECTIOUS
AND OTHER DISEASES.
General.
Compared with the previous year when only 578 notifications
of infectious diseases, excluding Tuberculosis, were received, the
figure of 2,284 for 1957 may appear bad on the surface. Actually
the picture portrayed by these figures is deceptive for if we
exclude measles, only 410 other than for tuberculosis were received.
If measles were to be eliminated from the 1956 figures, our total
notifications for that year would have been 545, giving an overall
result of 135 less notifications in 1957 than in 1956.
Other variations which have occurred during the year include
a reduction of ten in the number of cases of scarlet fever, and
twenty-six in the number of cases of pneumonia. There was also
a decrease in the number of cases of dysentery thirty-three being
notified as against fifty in 1956. The figures for anterior poliomyelitis
also dropped from twelve to seven, and food poisoning
from thirty-six to nineteen.
Generally speaking the infectious diseases retained their mild
characteristics of recent years, and this point is very well illustrated
by the fact that only twelve of the 1,874 notified cases of measles
were admitted to hospital.
Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis.
During the past year, seven cases were notified, as against
twelve in the previous year.
Three cases were confirmed as being paralytic, and were
admitted to hospital. The remaining four cases were non-paralytic
and of these two were home nursed and two were admitted to
hospital.
Vaccination against Poliomyelitis.
Vaccination against poliomyelitis was carried out in the area
by the County Council, and the following table, which has been
furnished by the County Medical Officer, gives the number of
children resident in the Urban District who received a course of
two injections during the year ended 31st December, 1957 :—
Year of Birth 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957
No. Vaccinated 638 582 572 489 181 158 160 146 105 128 2
Grand Total: 3,161.