[Report 1911] / Medical Officer of Health, Godalming Borough.

  • Godalming (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1911] / Medical Officer of Health, Godalming Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1/10 (page 5)
    REPORT OF MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH. Godalming, January 23rd, 1912. Lady and Gentlemen, I beg to present my third Annual Report as Medical Officer of Health to the Borough. The year under review has been a remarkable one, and not least so in the extreme variety of weather experienced during the twelve months. The cold spring, hot summer, and rainy autumn have produced abnormal conditions which cannot but have had, on the whole, a detrimental influence on the public health. I am glad to say that, in spite of this, the health of the Borough has been well maintained. Zymotic Disease.— During the year only fourteen cases of notifiable infectious disease have been reported to me, viz. :— Scarlet Fever ... ... ... ... ... 4 Diphtheria ... ... ... ... ... 5 Erysipelas ... ... ... ... ... ... 5 Considering the prevalence of Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria in the County during the autumn months, the record is a particularly good one. It must also be remembered that our juvenile population is relatively large. All the Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria patients were isolated either at the Joint Isolation Hospital at Woodbridge, or in School Sanatoria. As regards the diphtheria patients, three contracted the disease during July by contact with a severe case residing outside the Borough. There is no doubt that the free supply of anti-diphtheritic serum carried out by the Sanitary Authority in accordance with the Order of the Local Government Board, has done much to curtail the disease in individual cases. The town did not escape the epidemic of Measles which visited the whole country in February and March. The disease attacked a very large number of children, but fortunately in most it ran a mild course ; six cases terminated fatally. We can now look forward to several years comparative immunity from this disease. There have been no notifications of Smallpox during the year. I had occasion at the Quarterly Meeting of the Council on April 25th to call the attention of the Council to the neglect of Vaccination in the town. The Vaccination Officer and his predecessor have kindly provided me with the following striking figures :— Births Registered 1910 159 1911 155 Successful Vaccinations 59 60 Died Un-vaccinated 12 9 Postponed 2 1 Removed out of the Borough 4 3 So-called Conscientious Objections 81 58 Unaccounted for ... l 24 From this it will be seen that half the babies born in the Borough go un- vaccinated. Very few re-vaccinations are performed. Thus we have a large and increasing un-vaccinated population in our town susceptible to the most contagious and the most fatal of common epidemic diseases. 5