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This has proved a great boon both to the patients and their families, and it is hoped
that this accommodation will be extended so that all these cases will have an
opportunity of receiving institutional treatment.
Acute Poliomyelitis.
No case was notified during the year. This disease, which most commonly
attacks children, is characterised by acute feverish onset, with pain in one or more
limbs, and is followed by more or less extensive paralysis.
The disease is frequently not diagnosed during the initial stages, and the number
of actual cases is no doubt considerably in excess of the notifications.
The after treatment of the paralysis, which should extend over several years,
is most important. If neglected, children easily become badly crippled, who under
skilled orthopaedic treatment might enjoy normally active lives. The number of
children under five years of age known to the health visitors to be suffering from
paralysis following this disease is five. Every effort is made to secure that these
children attend hospital and that the parents carry out the advice given.
I have to thank Dr. Lewis, the Divisional School Medical Officer, for the
information that 24 Shoreditch children who are similarly afflicted attend the
Hoxton House Physically Defective School. These children are all medically
inspected at the school and are referred to hospital when necessary.
The Invalid Children's Aid Association render valuable assistance in the case
of children to whom apparatus for the correction of deformity has been supplied
at hospital. A note of the particulars of each case is sent by the hospital to the
Association, whose visitors advise and assist the parents in all matters relating to
the use, repair and inspection of the apparatus supplied.
Acute Primary Pneumonia.
Acute Influenzal Pneumonia.
The number of cases notified during the year was as follows :—
Acute primary pneumonia 92
Influenzal pneumonia 5
Of the 97 cases thus brought to the notice of the Department it was found that
69 were receiving treatment in various institutions, as follows:—52 in St. Leonard's
Hospital, 2 in the Metropolitan Hospital, 3 in St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and 12
in other institutions. Of the cases treated at home, 4 were visited by the Nurses
of the Shoreditch and Bethnal Green District Nursing Association, acting under the
direction of the doctor in charge of the case.
The sanitary condition of the homes visited as a result of these notifications
was found as regards air space, light and ventilation, to be as follows:— Satisfactory
45, fairly satisfactory 15, unsatisfactory 22.
In addition to the cases of pneumonia notified, as above, 52 cases of pneumonia
not of notifiable type were visited by the District Nursing Association. Altogether
the Association paid 543 visits in connection with 56 cases of pneumonia.
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