[Report 1953] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Swindon Borough.

  • Swindon Borough Council
Date:
1953
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1953] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Swindon Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    24 INFECTIOUS DISEASES The incidence of notified infectious diseases in Swindon during recent years is given in the following table:— Disease 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 Acute Pneumonia 39 32 38 26 .72 Acute Poliomyelitis 5 13 5 2 11 Acute Polioencephalitis — — — — — Cerebrospinal Fever — — 1 1 — Diphtheria 1 — — — — Erysipelas 5 3 1 3 7 Dysentery, Food Poisoning 1 7 67 5 1 Measles 964 353 1,173 242 1,490 Ophthalmia Neonatorum — — 2 2 — Typhoid and Paratyphoid Fevers , 1 _____ _ 1 Puerperal Pyrexia 24 11 37 51 65 Scarlet Fever 40 32 146 169 62 Smallpox — — — — — Tuberculosis—pulmonary 101 84 64 49 101 Tuberculosis— non-pulmonary 19 22 22 13 13 Whooping Cough 191 233 287 244 201 Acute Poliomyelitis and Polio Encephalitis During 1953, twelve cases of poliomyelitis were notified in Swindon as compared with four in 1952. One case was not con¬ firmed, and of the eleven confirmed cases, eight were paralytic and three non-paralytic. There was one death, that of a girl with bulbar paralysis. In this case, a doubtful train of infection was traced, but in no other case was there any evidence of direct or indirect contact with another case of poliomyelitis. One further case came to light when a woman who died sud¬ denly was found at post-mortem to have been suffering from poliomyelitis. None of the cases gave any history of recent inoculation or tonsillectomy. The cases were all notified during the period July to October. Four of the confirmed cases were adults, three children of 5 to 14, and four children under 5 years of age. This is in accordance with the usual experience that the disease is now tending to attack adults as well as children. Of the seven surviving paralytic cases, five were still under treatment by the Physiotherapy Department at the end of 1953, one v/as under observation, and one had been discharged cured.
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