[Report 1927] / Medical Officer of Health, Tynemouth County Borough.

  • Tynemouth (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1927] / Medical Officer of Health, Tynemouth County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Notifiable Diseases.—The following table shows the number of notifications received since 1922 :— Disease. 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1 Smallpox -. 3 1 2 28 59 Scarlet Fever 154 100 138 127 249 291 Diphtheria 36 31 30 36 65 90 Enteric Fever o O 11 54 12 2 7 Pneumonia 214 124 165 168 123 156 Influenzal Pneumonia 29 1 24 7 6 14 Puerperal Fever... 3 1 2 6 9 4 Puerperal Pyrexia — — — — -—- 8 Cerebro-spinal Fever .— 3 1 1 JL 3 1 Acute Poliomyelitis 1 1 1 — — Acute Polioencephalitis... — — 1 — — — Encephalitis Lethargica — 1 5 3 8 4 Continued Fever _ 1 — — — — ! Ophthalmia Neonatorum 42 26 19 10 12 18 Erysipelas 28 9 23 35 34 24 Tuberculosis (Respiratory) 102 105 144 116 116 94 ,, (Other forms) 51 50 56 35 54 45 Malaria 3 4 1 1 9 —i- 2 Chickenpox* — 65 73 34 205 9.) ! * Not compulsorily notiiiable. Smallpox.—-Cases notified, 59 ; deaths, 0. The highest incidence rate was during the months of March, April and May, when 45 cases occurred. Fron the beginning of September to the end of the year, the borough was entirely free from the disease. The number of cases notified each month was as follows :—January, 5 ; February, 1 ; March, 10 ; April, 20 ; May, 15 ; June, 2 ; July, 3 ; August, 3. In addition to these cases, 11 patients were removed to the hospital for observation but were discharged as soon as it was proved that they were not suffering from smallpox. The number of days spent in hospital by the patients and observation cases was 1,934. The public were warned throughout the year through the medium of the press, of the outbreak, and close supervision was kept upon every known contact until a period of three weeks had elapsed from the removal of the last case to hospital. Visitation of contacts threw a tremendous amount of extra work upon the department, and in all, several thousand visits were paid to the homes of those being kept under observation. Teachers in the schools were also asked to send returns of any known cases of Chickenpox occuring amongst scholars, in order that enquiry might be made in the home as to whether a medical practitioner was in attendance or not. In all cases where there was no doctor, one of the medical staff of the Health Department visited the house in order to verify the statement as to whether the case was one of Chickenpox or not. The procedure adopted after the removal of the patients to hospital, was to have the house thoroughly disinfected, and the names of all known contacts carefully recorded. The contacts were also urged to have im¬ mediate vaccination performed. The Medical Officer vaccinated 161