[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Walthamstow].

  • Walthamstow (England). Borough Council.
Date:
[1951?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Walthamstow]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    92/98 page 90
    90 (h) B.C.G. Vaccination against Tuberculosis is provided for children who are in contact with Tuberculosis. This new service has just been introduced. It is necessary for a child undergoing B.C.G. Vaccination to be kept away from the source of infection for three months. This can in certain cases be achieved by arranging for the child to be cared for during that period by a foster mother, but it is also intended to set up a residential home for this purpose at an early date. (i) Finally there should be mentioned the great amount of good work which is done for Tuberculous persons and their families by voluntary Tuberculosis Care Associations. There are sixteen of these Associations, covering the whole of the County, and all of them are given full encouragement by the County Council, including financial assistance. The number of visits made by the Tuberculosis Health Visitors during 1950 has been as follows:— Walthamstow 945 Forest Area 383 Total 1,328 POLIOMYELITIS FOLLOW-UP During the course of their routine duties the health visitors visited all known cases of poliomyelitis. This disease first became notifiable in 1912, and up to the end of 1949 the total of notified cases was 147, of whom 19 died in the year of notification. Unfortunately records previous to 1935 are not now available, and the total number of cases reviewed was 74. Of these 57 were visited, eight were not traced, and nine were dead. Of the 57 cases alive only two were unable to walk. The disabilities were :— Headache 2 Paralysis— Paralysis— One leg 8 One side 1 Foot 3 Shoulder, back, arm 1 Weakness, one leg 12 Shoulder and arms 2 One arm 3 Total 39 Arms and legs 2 Both legs 5 These 39 disabled cases represented some 69 per cent. of all cases remaining alive. There were no disabilities in 18 cases.
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