[Report 1926] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Reading County Borough.

  • Reading (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1926
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1926] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Reading County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE. Except for an epidemic of measles, the past year has been one of freedom from infectious disease. The incidence of diphtheria has been amongst the lowest for many years and scarlet fever cases have been few in number and mild in character. The borough has again maintained its freedom from smallpox. The appended table on page 21 indicates the number, age incidence and ward distribution of all notified cases of infectious disease. Smallpox. It is considerably over twenty years since smallpox occurred in Reading. It has, however, appeared in many other parts of the country. Throughout the N.E. coast, in certain parts of Lancashire, Cheshire, and Nottinghamshire, and more recently in the city of Sheffield, and in South Wales, there have been epidemics of the disease. The number of notifications throughout the country have been increasing year by year since 1920. The disease is still of the mild variety and appears to threaten little danger to life though certain of the cases cause considerable scarring. With the abundant foci of infection in other parts of the country and the ease of travelling, there is no longer any guarantee that the immunity of any particu¬ lar town will be maintained. The very mildness of the cases is apt to facilitate its spread in the fact that persons suffering from the disease may travel in an infected state and cases of smallpox may remain for a time unrecognised or be mistaken for chickenpox. Vaccination. The vaccination returns for the yeai 1925, for which I am indebted to Mr. W. H. Oliver, Clerk to the Guardians, are appended and differ little from those of recent years. As will be seen considerably less than 20 per cent, of children born are now successfully vaccinated. The great majority of the population of the borough is unprotected by vaccination. TABLE IV. Districts. _ Number of births Registered. Number of children successfully vaccinated. Insusceptible of vaccination. Had Small Pox. Died un-vaccinated. 1 Exemption from vaccination by Statutory Declara¬ tion of “ Conscien¬ tious Objection.” Postponement by Medical Certificate. Removed to other districts.! Removed to places unknown. Number of births remaining (unaccounted for). No. Rate per cent of total births No. 1 635 86 — 30 392 9 1 40 77 12.1 No. 2 617 93 2 35 355 — 62 24 46 7.4 No. 3 323 54 2 11 203 — 3 14 36 11.1 Whole Borough 1575 233 4 76 950 9 66 78 159 10.2 f Vaccination Officer duly apprised.
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