View report page

15
OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM.
The certificates received numbered 108, and they related to 78 cases. This is
an increase of 13 on the number for 1922. There were also some 63 other cases of
inflamed eyes in infants which were brought to our notice by the Medical Officer of
Health, London County Council, but not formally notified. They were all kept
under observation by the Health Visitors to ensure proper treatment. Of the cases
certified, 28 were of a severe type, but in all there was recovery without impairment
of vision. One child, whilst suffering from ophthalmia neonatorum, died from other
causes. Many of the cases were treated at Moorfields Eye Hospital, the Queen's,
the Metropolitan, St. Bartholomew's, and St. Leonard's Hospitals. Five cases
were removed to St. Margaret's Hospital, an institution of the Metropolitan Asylums
Board especially provided for the treatment of this disease, mothers as well as the
infants being admitted when necessary. Twenty-one of the cases were dealt with
under nurses from the local district Nursing Association, some 538 visits being made
in connection with them. The cases certified in Shoreditch were at the rate of 27.5
per 1,000 births as compared with 8.3 for London as a whole, more than three times
as great.
EPIDEMIC CEREBRO-SPINAL MENINGITIS.
Two cases were certified, one a boy aged 4 months died in the Queen's Hospital
on April 14th. He was taken ill on January 12th. The meningococcus of cerebrospinal
fever was found in the cerebro-spinal fluid. The other case, a girl aged
10 months, was admitted to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and was certified on
May 5th. This case recovered. A girl, aged between two and five years, died from
this disease also, but the case was not recognised during life.
Six deaths were certified to have been due to meningitis other than tuberculous,
four in infants under 12 months. So far as could be ascertained, there was no
reason for regarding any of them as having been caused by the meningococcus of
cerebro-spinal fever. During the year some 71 cases were certified in London, and
57 deaths were attributed to meningococcal meningitis.
ACUTE ANTERIOR POLIOMYELITIS.
One case was certified on February 23rd, the patient being a male infant ten
months old. He was noticed to be ailing for about a week at the beginning of
February. He subsequently came under observation at one of the Council's Welfare
Centres, and the mother was directed to take him to the Mildmay Mission Hospital,
where he was admitted on February 22nd. In the Metropolis there were notified
117 cases, the majority during the latter part of the year, and there were thirteen
deaths.
GLANDERS, ANTHRAX AND HYDROPHOBIA.
On the morning of April 25th information was received from the Metropolitan
Hospital that a young man aged 32, residing in Shoreditch, had died from anthrax.
Inquiry showed that he had been handling bales of horsehair from Russia, the last