View report page

Acute Poliomyelitis.
During the late summer and early autumn several cases of acute
poliomyelitis occurred in different parts of Middlesex, and in the late autumn
this area became affected. Altogether 12 probable cases of the disease occurred.
On October 7th a notification was received relating to a girl aged 7.
This notification had been forwarded from the medical officer of health of a
nearby district as the child had been diagnosed while a patient in a hospital
in his district. Enquiry showed that the date of onset of the disease was
September 3rd—35 days before the notification was received. There is not
necessarily any blame to be attached to a delayed notification of this sort as
a case may, in the absence of other cases, be more than usually difficult to
diagnose, but it illustrates one of the difficulties the health authority has to
face. The next day, October 8th, a second notification, of a girl aged 5, was
received, having been forwarded by a metropolitan borough as the case was
diagnosed in one of the London teaching hospitals. The onset of this case
was September 30th. Both children were found to be in attendance at the
infants' department of the same school. Although they were in different classes
they mixed at playtime and probably for certain school lessons, such as singing,
but the 27 days between the onsets, during which there was no contact, pointed
to a source of infection common to both rather than a case-to-case infection.
Enquiries were made therefore with regard to recent illnesses, and absentees
were followed up. Nothing suspicious was found except in the case of a girl
aged 5, who had been notified by the head teacher on September 7th as having
been away from school since September 3rd suffering from (?) meningitis.
This had been followed up in the usual way and I had been informed by the
hospital (a third hospital) to which she had been sent that she was a case of
"meningismus of query origin." She had made a quick recovery from her
symptoms, had been kept in hospital for only six days, and had returned to
school on October 5th. In view, however, of the fact that the same school
was involved in these cases the matter was reported to the Ministry of Health
on October 9th under the Sanitary Officers Regulations.