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

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Shoreditch 1927

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]

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16
OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM.
Under the Public Health (Ophthalmia Neonatorum) Regulations, 1926, the
duty of notifying cases of ophthalmia neonatorum is placed solely upon the medical
practitioner in charge of the cases.

These were not formally notified. Subjoined are the particulars relating to the cases certified during the year as required by the Minister of Health:—

Cases.Vision Unimpaired.Vision Impaired.Total Blindness.Deaths.
Notified.Treated.
At Home.In Hospital.
49409481......

The usual supervision was exercised through the Health Visitors for securing
proper treatment. Of the cases certified, seven were of a severe type. In one instance
vision was impaired. A number of the cases received treatment at the Moorfields Eye
Hospital. Nine cases were treated in hospital, one of them being admitted to
St. Margaret's Hospital, a special institution of the Metropolitan Asylums Board for
the treatment of this disease. When necessary mothers are admitted with their
infants. Fourteen of the cases were attended to by nurses from the Local District
Nursing Association who made an average of 22 visits per case.
The certified cases were at the rate of 22.4 per 1,000 births as compared with 10.7
for London as a whole, more than twice as great.
EPIDEMIC CEREBRO-SPINAL MENINGITIS.
One case was certified. It occurred in an infant and terminated fatally in the
Queen's Hospital.
POLIO-MYELITIS.
Two cases of the above disease. which is generally known as infantile paralysis,
were certified. One of these was removed to the Western Hospital, where it was
found not to be a case of poliomyelitis.
The second case occurred in an infant aged eight months. The child was admitted
to the Queen's Hospital and discharged in April. The arm, which was the part
affected in this case, has improved since the child's discharge from hospital.