View report page

CONTROL OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASES

During the year erisipelas, membranous croup, acute pneumonia
and puerperal pyrexia ceased to be notifiable and leptospirosis, yellow
fever and tetanus were added to the list of notifiable diseases.
Early in the year a contact of a case of typhoid fever attended
a party given at a local hotel. The contact and all the hotel staff were
checked and kept under observation for the necessary period but
fortunately all results were negative. Five other contacts of typhoid
fever, mainly holiday makers returning from abroad, were all kept
under surveillance at various times in the year—again with favourable
results.
Two children living in the Borough attended a camp at which
a child was found to be a carrier of a virulent nasal diphtheria.
Swabs from the contacts were found to be negative.
In November there was an outbreak of sickness and diarrhoea at
one of the Borough's primary schools. Routine investigation of the
early cases brought to light one case of dysentery and more than 60
specimens were taken from affected children and the kitchen staff.
All results were negative and the ready help given by the Headmaster
and his staff helped to bring the investigation to a quick and satisfactory
end.
Following a visit to Jerusalem by a party from the Borough in
October, a case of flexner dysentery was notified. Investigation of the
contacts brought one other case, in the carrier state, to light. The
infection was not long lived. Flexner dysentery was also discovered
in a child in hospital, who had previously attended the Special Care
Unit of the Bordesley Road Junior Training Centre. Specimens were
taken from all other children attending the Special Care Unit but all
the results were negative.
During the early summer there were a number of cases of infective
jaundice at a primary school in the Borough. The school was
visited by a Deputy Medical Officer of Health and by the District
20