[Report 1953] / Medical Officer of Health, Preston (Union) R.D.C.

  • Preston (Lancashire, England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1953
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1953] / Medical Officer of Health, Preston (Union) R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    numbered 2. One death occurred in an infant under one year of age, and the other was a child aged 2 3/ears. Altogether there have been three deaths from this disease during the last decade. Nearly all the cases occurred in the first half of the year, and though all parishes were affected, incidence was highest in the parishes of Longton, Penwortham, Ribchester, Goosnargh and Farington in that order. DYSENTERY One hundred and sixty-eight notifications of dysentery were received; 163 of the people affected were inmates of the Whittingham Hospital,, and the usual disease type was “ FLEXNER. The remainder of the cases occurred in private households and constituted five single cases of '' SONNE DYSENTERY.'’ Institutions such as mental hospitals, day nurseries, children’s hospitals and the like are the main focal points of outbreaks of dysentery as, of course, they provide good opportunity for the spread of the disease, particularly as it is more often found to be by contact rather than by food. ACUTE POLIOMYELITIS (including polioencephalitis) Confirmed cases in 1953 totalled six as compared with one in 1952 and. one in 1951. Three of the cases were confirmed as Paralytic and three as Non-paralytic. Five of the people affected were children, and in four instances the patient was removed to hospital. Four children recovered completely, but one child, a boy aged 6 years, died. The other case, a female aged 28 years, recovered with slight functional limitation. ACUTE ENCEPHALITIS Post Infectious There was one case notified; a boy aged 9 years was admitted to the Deepdale Isolation Hospital suffering from measles, and later he developed Acute Encephalitis. Subsequently the patient was removed to an Orthopaedic hospital in the Midlands. r20