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
Southall 1940
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southall]
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Special Infectious Diseases.
Smallpox (Variola).
No patients with smallpox or contacts of cases of smallpox were notified to the
Department during the year. No work was done under the Public. Health (Small-pox
prevention) Regulation, 1917.
Scarlet Fever (Scarlatina).
The number of notifications received during the year was 57 as compared with
123 for the previous year.
Of these, 52 were removed to the Isolation Hospital.
Infection appears to have been mainly due to case-to-case contact. Most of the
cases were of a very mild character. In some cases the rash was" of fleeting duration ;
in other cases there were very few signs in the throat.
Administration of Prontosil alba, therapeutic agent of special use in the treatment
of streptococcal infections, of which scarlatina is a typical example, was continued
in the Isolation Hospital during the year. An analysis of the results of this treatment
is contained in the report on the Isolation Hospital.
Diphtheria.
There were 55 cases of diphtheria notified as compared with 20 in 1939. All the
cases were removed to the Isolation Hospital. There were three deaths from diphtheria of
residents during the year.
Several of the cases were of a severe type.
Diphtheria Prevention.
It was mentioned in the Report for 1935 that the Ministry of Health had approved
a scheme for the immunisation of children against diphtheria.
A general report of the attendances at clinical sessions during the year is shown in the following table No. 37.
| Table No. 37. | |
| Number of sessions held | 51 |
| Number of new patients | 217 |
| Total attendances made | 889 |
| Average attendance per session | 17 |
| Highest attendance at a session | 47 |
| Lowest attendance at a session | 4 |
| During 1940 the number of new cases was | 217 |
| The number of children over the age of 6 years who were tested and found to be Schick negative, therefore not requiring immunisation | 1 |
| The number of patients in whom treatment was completed and a Schick test done afterwards found to be negative | 158 |
| The number of patients in which treatment was completed but who were waiting tests at the end of 1940 | 47 |
| The number of patients with regard to whom treatment is unfinished in the year 1940 and may be completed later | 11 |
| 217 |
During the year there were no cases of local reaction as a result of an injection
of the antigen.
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