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Figures for the number of children under 15 estimated to be living in Brentford
and Chiswick at the present time are not made available by the Registrar
General, but taking the figure at the 1951 Census as a rough guide, i.e. a population
of 11,418 children under 15, the percentage of children of school age
who have at some time in their lives received a full course of immunisation
against diphtheria and who have therefore reasonable protection, is roughly 73.3.
On these calculations, although they are approximate only, there is still reason
for concern that the community protection against diphtheria is below the safety
margin.
The number of children receiving booster injections i.e. the dose given
just before school entry to reinforce the effects of the primary immunisation,
remains at a somewhat low level, it is not, however, dropping.
Whooping Cough
50 cases of whopping cough occurred in 1956. No deaths occurred from this
disease.
Dysentery and Food Poisoning
There was no serious outbreak of dysentery or food poisoning during the
year. Eleven notifications of food poisoning were received, and of these four
occurred in one family and three in another. The organism identified in two
of these cases was Salmonella typhi-murium. No bacterial origin was ascertained
in any of the other cases, and although specific foods were blamed by the patients
in some cases, bacteriological investigations, when possible, did not
confirm.
Ten persons were notified as suffering from dysentery, of these eight were
confirmed as due to Shigella Sonnei, and one to Salmonella typhi-murium. One
case was not confirmed as dysentery.
All the cases were single, except for one family carrying Sonne dysentery
organisms where four persons were found to be contacts of a positive Sonne case
in a neighbouring house. No further spread occurred. Specimens of faeces
were obtained from all contacts.
Tuberculosis
The number of notifications of tuberculosis in 1956 was 95 as compared with
94 in the previous year, the pulmonary cases amounting to 86 and the non-pulmonary
to 9. The number of deaths from this disease was six as compared with
seven in 1955 and four in 1954. There were two deaths from non-pulmonary
tuberculosis, the first since 1952, one was male and one female and both deaths
were due to tuberculosis of the kidney.
It cannot be concluded from these figures that the fall in tuberculosis
incidence and mortality has continued during 1956. The improvement which had
been occurring annually slowed down in 1955 and appears to have stopped for the
time being.
Two of the persons who died from tuberculosis, one from pulmonary disease
and one from non-pulmonary, had not previously been diagnosed as tuberculosis.
Facilities for diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis as well
as prevention and after care are provided by the Hounslow Chest Clinic, and home
visiting is carried out by Health Visitors attached to this Clinic. They are
also responsible for the examination of contacts and for the B. c. G. inoculation
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