London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Hounslow 1968
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hounslow]
This page requires JavaScript
Health Services and Public Health Act 1968
Part III of the Act. which deals with notifiable
diseases and food poisoning and the Public
Health (Infectious Diseases) Regulations 1968
and the Public Health (Fees for Notification of
Infectious Diseases) Order 1968. came into
operation on 1st October, consolidating and
bringing up-to-date in one document former
statutory instruments relating to infectious
diseases The 1968 Act repeals the provisions
in the Public Health Act. 1936 and the Food
and Drugs Act 1955, relating to notification
procedures and sets out unified procedures
It also includes provisions concerning the
medical examination of a person suffering from
or believed to be a cause of a notifiable
disease
The principal changes affecting medical
practitioners attending patients who are
suffering from or suspected to be suffering
from notifiable infectious disease or from food
poisoning are:a
All provisions governing the notification
o* infectious disease and food poisoning
are now to be found in Sections 47 to 49
of the Health Services and Public Health
Act 1968 and the Public Health (Infectious
Diseases) Regulations 1968
b The infectious diseases to be notified to
the medical officer of health as from 1st
October 1968 are:-
Acute encephalitis Ophthalmia neonatorum
Acute meningitis Paratyphoid fever
Acute poliomyelitis Plague
Anthrax Relapsing fever
Cholera Scarlet fever
Diphtheria Smallpox
Dysentery Tetanus
(amoebic or bacillary) Tuberculosis
Infective jaundice Typhoid fever
Leprosy Typhus
Leptospirosis Whooping cough
Malaria Yellow fever
Measles
c Notification of the diseases listed below
was not required after 30th September
1968:-
Acute influenzal pneumonia Erysipelas
Acute primary pneumonia Membranous croup
Acute rheumatism Puerperal pyrexia
d Responsibility for notifying a case or
suspected case of food poisoning or
infectious disease rests exclusively on the
medical practitioner attending the patient
unless he believes that another practitioner
has already notified the case
By an order made under Section 50 of the Act
the notification fee was increased to 5s from 1st
October 1968
The number of corrected notifications of infectious diseases received during the year compared with previous years are summarised below
| Disease | 1968 | 1967 | 1966 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dysentery | 109 | 16 | 79 |
| Encephalitis acute | 1 | 5 | 5 |
| Erysipelas | 9 | 7 | 4 |
| Food poisoning | 12 | 9 | 1 |
| Infective jaundice | o 29 | - | - |
| Malaria | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| Measles | 466 | 1.535 | 893 |
| Meningococcal infection | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Paratyphoid fever | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Pneumonia, acute | 4 | 9 | 18 |
| Puerperal pyrexia | * 36 | 63 | 53 |
| Scarlet fever | 105 | 85 | 120 |
| Tuberculosis | |||
| pulmonary | 66 | 81 | 64 |
| non-pulmonary | 22 | 21 | 19 |
| Typhoid fever | 1 | 1 | - |
| Whooping cough | 78 | 112 | 37 |
up to 30th September 1968 only, 0 from 15th June
1968
The table on page 106 gives the number of cases
notified under age groups
Smallpox
There were 36 referrals for supervision of possible
smallpox contacts who had arrived in this country
from locally infected or declared endemic smallpox
areas and who were reported to be proceeding to
addresses in Houns low All these were visited and
kept under surveillance for the required period
Whooping cough
There were 78 cases notified compared with 112 in
19