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

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West Ham 1932

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for West Ham]

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Fatality rate:—The two fatal cases were children under 3
years of age. One of them, a girl, developed the disease 3 days
after the removal of tonsils and adenoids. She had an extremely
toxic attack, complicated by broncho-pneumonia, and died within
24 hours of admission. The other case, a boy aged 2 years,
suffered from the septic type of the disease. The fatality rate
was .33 per cent, of the cases admitted.

Complications:—Of the 560 cases discharged during the year, 198, or 35 per cent., suffered from complications as follows :

Adenitis57 cases or 10.17 per cent.
Albuminuria52 „ „ 9.28 „ „
Arthritis7 ,, ,, 1.25 ,, ,,
Otorrhoea39 „ ,, 6.96 „ ,,
Nephritis10 ,, „ 1.78 „ „
Cardiac affections (transient)8 „ „ 1.42 „ „
Rhinitis25 ,, ,, 4.46 ,, ,,

Diphtheria.
Forty-one patients were in residence at the beginning of 1932,
and 438 cases, notified as diphtheria were admitted during the
year. 293 of these proved to be suffering from the disease, making
a total of 334 cases under treatment. Of these, 272 were discharged,
9 died, and 53 remained under treatment at the end of
the year.
Of the 281 cases which were discharged or died, 23 had
laryngeal diphtheria, 29 suffered only from nasal diphtheria, and
9 were cases of otorrhoea with positive swabs.
Among the 221 true faucial cases only 25 suffered from severe
clinical attacks; the rest were mild or of moderate severity. The
amount of antitoxin administered to the severe cases varied from
42,000 units to 194,000 units, given partly by intravenous and
partly by intramuscular injection. The amount of antitoxin given
to the other cases averaged 18,000 units.
Post-diphtheritic paralysis occurred in 15 cases. It was severe
in 4 cases and mild in 11 cases.
Laryngeal diphtheria:—51 cases were admitted as laryngeal
diphtheria, but 28 of these proved to be wrongly diagnosed. Of
the 23 true cases, 5 required tracheotomy, and 2 of these proved
fatal, giving a fatality rate of 40 per cent. of the cases operated
on. The average amount of antitoxin administered to the laryngeal
cases was 22,000 units.
Fatality rate :—7 deaths occurred among the faucial cases,
which gives a fatality rate of 3.61 per cent. One of them was a
child aged 3½ years, who was suffering from marked post diphtheritic
paralvsis and died within a few hours of admission.
91
H