[Report 1925] / Medical Officer of Health, Eccles Borough.

  • Eccles (Greater Manchester, England). Borough Council.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1925] / Medical Officer of Health, Eccles Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    disease has been less than in the preceding years the average annnal number of cases notified being 18. Measles was epidemic in the district in 1919 and again became epidemic in 1922 when 1,509 cases were notified. Again in 1924 there was an outbreak of the disease with 1,011 cases. The epidemic continued into the past year when 483 cases were notified. During the 1922 epidemic 18 deaths occurred, a case mortality of 1.2 per cent., while in 1924 and 1925 there were 13 deaths, a case mortal- ity of 0.87 per cent. The second epidemic commenced a fortnight after Whitsuntide among the children who had attended a Sunday School picnic and from this focus spread throughout the whole borough. There have also been two epidemics of Whooping Cough, the fir.'t occurring in 1922 when there were 17 deaths from the disease but no information is available as to the number of cases of the disease. Last year the town was again visited by this disease and 413 cases of the disease were notified by^ parents and medical ])ractitioners or were discovered by the Health Visitors while visit- ing. There were G deaths from the disease during the year, equal to a case mortality of 1.45 per cent, of the known cases. Chicken I’ox appears to be endemic in the district. Since the disease was made notifiable in 1922 the number of cases notified each year has been 142, 384, 173, and 397. A great improvement has taken place in the prompt removal to hospital of cases of Diphtheria. It was formerly a very common practice to take a swab from the throat of a person suspected of suffering from the disease and wait for a bacteriological report before notifying it. This led to considerable delay in the removal of the case and the administration of antitoxin. It is now the usual practice to notify and remove the case on a clinical diagnosis so that antitoxin may be administered immediately the diagnosis is confirmed. During the period under review one case of Malaria was notified but on investigation is was ascertained that the disease was not contracted in this country. One death from Dysentery was certified in 1921 but the illness was a result of residence abroad. No notifications of Trench Fever have been received. During the qiiinquennium 292 cases of acute primary pneu- monia and 53 cases of influenzal pneumonia have been notified, while the total number of deaths from pneumonia has been 197. The number of notifications from these diseases has increased each year indicating that during the early years during which the disease was notifiable, there had been, in a large number of instances, failure to notify.