London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Sutton and Cheam 1951

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Sutton and Cheam]

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Measles must still be regarded as a serious infection.
Despite the advantages of modern drugs in the prevention and
treatment of pneumonia, there is the occasional case where
through some inherent weakness in the response of the natural
protective mechanism a fatal Bronchiolitis develops. Careful
nursing during the febrile phase and careful convalescence are
essential in all cases.
Prevention depends on recognition of infection during the
three or four days before the rash develops. The initial
illness may seem to be only a minor indisposition. The child
is often miserable and disinclined for food or play. There may
be catarrh of the eyes nose or throat. This is the highly
infectious phase and failure to recognise it leads to dissemination
of infection. Children are frequently sent to school, or
allowed to play in the streets or to go to the cinema in this
phase of infection, which could more often be detected or at
least suspected by more careful observation of minor indisposition
in children and the Judicious use of the thermometer, a
valuable household instrument during epidemics.
Whooping Cough. Three hundred and fifty one cases were
notified. This Is an Increase of one hundred and forty one cases.
Prevalence was highest in January and February. The East and
East Central Wards had the greatest Incidence. The case rate
was 4.41 per 1,000 of population, compared with 3.87 per 1,000
of population for England and Wales, Eight cases were admitted
to hospital. There was no death.

The monthly incidence of notified cases is shown in the following table.

January56July43
February58August44
March29September22
April40October11
May21November1
June21December5

Whooping Cough is a dangerous disease of infancy. The
incidence of infection was highest among the Infant children and
included twenty five babies under one year of age.
The indefinite nature of the initial illness which may
last for seven or even fourteen days before the characteristic
whoop develops makes early diagnosis and the prevention of the
spread of infection difficult. Early diagnosis may be helped by
the use of cough plates cor eft throat swabs for the isolation of
the bacillus. The new drug Chloromycetin can be valuable in
treatment and prophylaxis if used in the early stages of
infection. Ultimate control of the disease is likely to depend
on the use of improved vaccines.
Immunisation against Whooping Cough. During the year two
hundred and twenty eight children were given injections against
Whooping Cough. The material used was Pertussis 'S' Vaccine
(suspended and alum precipitated). The alum precipitated type
may predispose a muscle to paralysis in a person incubating
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