[Report 1920] / Medical Officer of Health, Hastings County Borough.

  • Hastings (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1920
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1920] / Medical Officer of Health, Hastings County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    26/54 (page 26)
    Measles. Measles is no longer compulsorily notifiable and only 42 cases of the disease were reported. Our chief sources of information of the presence of measles are the Education Author- ities and the Health Visitors. Only six deaths from measles were registered, all of young children, 4 being in the age period 1 to 2 years. Five departments of Elementary Schools were closed for short periods and the premises were disinfected. An unusually long interval has now elapsed since any measles epidemic attended by serious mortality has occurred, the last being in 1915 when 28 deaths were recorded. In 1919 there was not a single death. The disease is intensely infectious and tends to recur in epidemic form every 2 or 3 years in large centres of population. Erysipelas. Notifications numbered 31 against 39 in 1919 and there was one death from this cause at the age of 76. No notification was received of anyone at, or under, school age. Whooping Cough. Whooping cough is probably always present in a town of this description to which children suffering from the disease are frequently sent from inland districts, the seaside being considered beneficial in such cases. There were four deaths of infants under 2 years from this cause in 1920, the same number as in the preceding year. Ophthalmia Neonatorum. There were 8 cases of this disease notified. In seven of these recovery was complete, but one infant lost the sight of one eye. Nursing of these cases is carried out .by the District Nursing Association. The most severe are removed to the East Sussex Hospital. Influenza. After the great epidemic of influenza in 1918 and the earlier part of 1919 the prevalence of influenza in 1920 was comparatively slight, but 7 deaths were registered in Hastings in the June Quarter, and 2 deaths of persons belonging to the Borough occurred else- where making 9 for this quarter. In the rest of the year there were but 6 influenza deaths in all.