[Report 1914] / Medical Officer of Health, Beeston U.D.C.

  • Beeston (Nottinghamshire, England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1914] / Medical Officer of Health, Beeston U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    NON-NOTIFIABLE INFECTIOUS DISEASES. MEASLES. In June, we had a sharp epidemic of this disease, and three deaths resulted. In the absence of notification of this disease, it is difficult to know exactly when it commences, and by the time it is brought to our attention, an epidemic is in full swing. It usually begins in the Infant Department, and if the teachers would collaborate with us, and notify me of the early cases, the timely closing of an odd class, might prevent further spread, and possibly the necessity of closing the whole school at a later date. As it was, I kept in close touch with the School Attendance Officer—Mr. Freeman—and had bi-weekly returns of the absences reported to me. At no time did the attendance of scholars go below 85%, and therefore I couldn’t see the necessity, in spite of outside pressure, of closing the schools. I can only repeat what I have said in many previous Reports, that this disease, far from being the trivial complaint, most parents consider it, leads to more deaths than all the other infectious diseases put together. This mortality is not due so much to the severity of the disease itself, as to the lung complications which come in its train. For this reason, too much care cannot be given to children starting with measles, to keep them in bed at a uniform temperature, so as to avoid chest troubles as far as possible. WHOOPING COUGH. This was at no time prevalent during the year. It is a most dis- tressing complaint, and somewhat fatal in very young children. One death resulted. EPIDEMIC DIARRHOEA. This is essentially a “ filth disease,” and seldom occurs in cleanly or well regulated households. It is a preventible disease, and depends for its origin on insanitary surroundings, and improper care in the preparation and preservation of food, more especially in the case of infants. This is shown by the fact that breast fed babies seldom suffer from it. So long as milk and other foods are left exposed to the atten- tion of the ubiquitous house fly, so long will this disease, given suitable atmospheric conditions, levy its toll of infant victims. The only way we. as a Sanitary Authority can lessen the evil is to see that heaps of manure and other garbage in the vicinity of houses—the natural breeding place of the house fly—are removed weekly, and in the course of time, to convert our present system of dry pails to the water carriage plan. Owing to the comparatively cool summer of 1914, Diarrhoea was at no time very prevalent, yet I find four deaths in infants occurred in September from this disease. MILK SUPPLY. The importance of this question must be my excuse for again referring to it, in what, T fear must be in somewhat disparaging terms.
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