[Report 1962] / Medical Officer of Health, Monmouthshire County Council.

  • Monmouthshire (Wales). County Council.
Date:
1962
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1962] / Medical Officer of Health, Monmouthshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/112 (page 15)
    NOTIFIABLE DISEASES. Smallpox. There were no eases of notified smallpox in Monmouthshire in 1962. A letter dated 1st January, 1962, from the Ministry of Health advised all Medical Officers of Health that a diagnosis of Smallpox had been confirmed in a man who had arrived at London Airport on December 15th, 1961, having boarded an aircraft at Karachi. He was isolated at 'Hartford. A second case, which also had arrived by air from Karachi on December 19th had been con- firmed as a case of smallpox. Press and broadcast announcements were made immediately advising any person who had travelled on the namedi flights to report to the nearest Medical Officer of Health. No contacts came to light in Monmouthshire, but all general medical practitioners in the County were in- formed of the cases and their circumstances. A third case was discovered in Bradford, this time a child from Karachi. On January 16th, 1962, the Ministry of Health sent a letter to all Medical Officers of Health stating that another case had been detected, this time in Birmingham, but again from Karachi, and in the same letter was a noti- fication that an adult male had arrived at London Airport from Karachi, and after travelling to Birmingham from London by taxi had continued his journey by train to Cardiff, on January 13th, 1962. There he had stayed at a restaurant before being discovered to be a case of smallpox. Information was received from the Welsh Board of Health that the train on which the man had travelled had been in circulation for 3 days afterwards and all who had travelled on certain stated journeys should be vaccinated. A number of persons came forward and were vaccinated. Members of Health Staffs became eligible for vaccination and this was offered to and arranged for them. A notice dated January 25th, 1962, gave information as to the position in other parts of the Country, and stated that although the one case from Cardiff was seriously ill, no cases had developed among his contacts. No further cases were detected in England and Wales until February 25th, 1962, when six suspected cases were discovered in Glamorganshire in one morning, the source being unknown. ’ l Now the general public in this County were becoming alarmed, and w list persons “at risk” were given priority for vaccination, pressure began o be exerted on County Clinics and general medical practitioners, a number of the latter asking the County Health Department for help in dealing with