[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hampstead Borough].

  • Hampstead (London, England). Metropolitan Borough.
Date:
[1949?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hampstead Borough]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    7 Infectious Disease during 1948 Notifications Removals to Hospitals Deaths Cerebro-Spinal Fever 1 1 - Diphtheria 3 3 — Dysentery 41 8 — Erysipelas 8 2 — Malaria 2 — — Measles 577 33 — Ophthalmia Neonatorum 2 1 — Pneumonia 53 15 1 Poliomyelitis 4 3 — Puerperal Pyrexia 12 11 — Scabies 36 — — Scarlet Fever 85 33 — Typhoid Fever 1 1 — Whooping Cough 256 15 1 Total 1,081 126 2 Cancelled cases have not been included. Smallpox No case of smallpox occurred in the Borough during 1948. Dysentery During 1948 there were two outbreaks of Sonne dysentery in the Hampstead Day Nurseries. The one in Parkhill Road day nursery was small, and only four positive cases were found; the other in Woodchurch Road day nursery was more extensive, and involved 37 suspected children, 20 of whom were found to have Sonne dysentery. The outbreak at Parkhill Road was small, and readily responded to appropriate measures, i.e., exclusion of the positive cases (one staff and three children), and swabbing of all suspects. The first case at Woodchurch Road occurred on 5th July, 1948, when a child was found to be suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting. A swab was taken on that date and was returned negative. The child was re-admitted to the nursery, certified fit, on 12th July, 1948. A second swab, as a precautionary measure, was taken on that date and was returned positive for Sonne dysentery, and the child was then immediately excluded. During this week, 7 other children developed similar symptoms, and swabs showed positive Sonne dysentery. Swabs were then taken from all staff and children attending the nursery. However, during the week commencing 19th July, another 8 children developed dysentery. At the end of this week, the epidemic began to abate, and during the week commencing 26th July, only three new cases occurred. Fourteen other children who had loose motions had repeated negative swabs, and did not develop dysentery. A rigid technique was imposed on the nursery, and implicit instructions on hand washing were given to all members of nursery and kitchen staff. None of the nursing or domestic staff had any symptoms or any positive swabs. All cases where a positive swab was obtained were excluded from the nursery until three consecutive negative swabs at weekly intervals were obtained. (7609) a3