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
Richmond upon Thames 1967
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Richmond upon Thames]
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INFECTIOUS DISEASES
The number of notifications received during the year, compared with 1966, may be summarised as follows :
| Disease. | 1967 | 1966 |
|---|---|---|
| Dysentery | 3 | 13 |
| Erysipelas | 9 | 19 |
| Food Poisoning | 3 | |
| Infective Hepatitis | 34 | — |
| Malaria | 1 | — |
| Measles | 1400 | 888 |
| Meningococcal Infection | - | 1 |
| Ophthalmia Neonatorum | 1 | |
| Pneumonia | 27 | 32 |
| Puerperal Pyrexia | 1 | 4 |
| Scarlet Fever | 73 | 76 |
| Typhoid and Paratyphoid Fever | 3 | 1 |
| Whooping Cough | 52 | 80 |
The table on page 16 gives the number of cases notified under age groups.
Scarlet Fever.
The incidence of this disease is still relatively high, the 5—9 age group being
particularly susceptible, irrespective of sex. There was a satisfactory decrease in the
number of cases of Erysipelas, a similar disease which has its highest attack rate between
the ages of 40 and 60 years.
Whooping Cough.
Although less notifications were received in 1967 compared with 1966, the number
of cases still remains fairly high. Of the 52 cases notified, 15 of these had been
immunised including 4 who had received a booster dose. There is no record of
immunisation of the remaining cases.
The fact that so many of the notified cases had recently been immunised seems to
indicate that the present vaccine may not be very effective against the current strain
of the disease.
Measles.
Although relatively mild in metropolitan communities, this disease attains epidemic
proportions every second year and 1400 cases were notified in 1967. In 1964 a tentative
programme of immunisation of young children was commenced and a glance at
the histogram on page 12 shows that this has produced a "flattening out" of the
incidence curve of the disease probably due to interference in the circulation of the
wild virus.
Previous years figures are as follows :
1959 1957 1964 234
1960 57 1965 1992
1961 2422 1966 888
1962 112 1967 1400
1963 1885
11