[Report 1918] / Medical Officer of Health, Oxendon R.D.C.

  • Oxendon (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1918
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1918] / Medical Officer of Health, Oxendon R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    REPORT. Gentlemen, I have the honour to present to you my Annual Report to¬ gether with that of your Sanitary Inspector. Notifiable Infectious Diseases .-—87 cases of infectious disease have been notified during the year which is very greatly above the average ; the large number is due to an epidemic of measles which prevailed during the first six months of the year and accounted for 82 of the 87 notifiable cases. The major portion of this epidemic occurred at Welford, the cases were of a mild type, but at Oxendon it was followed by whooping cough and one fatality occurred there in a child who developed meningitis after measles and whooping cough. Schools were closed for measles at Welford, Marston and Oxendon. The remaining 5 notifiable cases includes one of erysipelas and 4 of scarlet fever ; three of the scarlet fever cases occurred simultaneously in the same house at Sutton Bassett. As a large epidemic of scarlet fever occurred in Market Harborough during the autumn months, the Oxendon District is fortunate in having escaped with so few cases. Non-Notifiable Infectious Diseases :—There was an epidemic ot whooping cough at Oxendon as already mentioned During October and November the district was widely attacked by the universal pandemic of influenza but escaped almost free during the summer. Most cases occurred in the villages but many also in remotely situated houses far removed from any other dwellings, persons being infected in these houses who had not been away from their houses for weeks and had not received infectious visitors. A considerable number of cases of pneumonia followed upon the influenza but I am unable to give the number as the disease was not notifiable. There were eleven deaths from influenza (six of these due to pneumonia, one to bronchitis, one to convulsions and one cerebral congestion) giving a death rate per 1,000 population of 27 which is a very low figure compared with the Urban areas. 'The ages at death from influenza during this epidemic is very striking and the figures for the Oxendon district bear out the general experience that the disease was most fatal to young adults ; thus, of the eleven deaths 1 was under 20 years of age, 6 between 20—30, 2 between 30—40 and 1 each between 30—40 and 40—50. In previous epidemics influenza has generally been progressively fatal with