Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1926.

  • Fulham (London, England). Metropolitan Borough.
Date:
[1927]
Catalogue details

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

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1926. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    32 Infectious Diseases. Incidence.—The number of cases of infectious diseases notified during 1926 was 5,292, compared with 2,199 in 1925 and 3,256 in 1924. The cause of the increase was the prevalence of measles, which accounted for 3,700 of the notifications, whereas in the year 1925 the latter numbered 589. The notifications of diphtheria increased from 276 in 1925 to 345 in 1926, but there was a considerable decrease in the number of cases of scarlet fever, which fell from 398 in 1925 to 311 in 1926. The notifications of influenzal and primary pneumonia fell from 320 in 1925 to 288 in 1926, and this corresponded with a marked diminution in the deaths from all forms of pneumonia. Regarding the three notifiable infectious diseases of the nervous system, encephalitis lethargica (sleepy sickness), acute polio-myelitis (infantile paralysis) and cerebro-spinal fever (so-called spotted fever), all three showed an increase in the notifications. Twelve cases of encephalitis lethargica were notified compared with 10 in 1925. Seven patients were notified as suffering from acute polio-myelitis, as compared with three during the previous year, and cerebro-spinal meningitis contributed four cases, an increase of one over the number for 1925. Typhoid or enteric fever accounted for eight of the notifications, against 10 during 1925. Mortality from Infectious Diseases.—Measles caused 47 deaths during 1926 and only two during 1925. Whooping-cough, although not a notifiable disease, is infectious, and therefore belongs to the same class as the cases under discussion. During 1925 this disease was very prevalent, causing 35 deaths, but in 1926 only six deaths were due to this disease. The deaths due to diphtheria increased from 11 in 1925 to 14 in 1926, and those due to scarlet fever increased from three to four. All the cases of typhoid and paratyphoid fever which occurred in 1925 and 1926 recovered, and there were also no deaths from infantile
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