[Report 1953-1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Berkshire County Council.

  • Berkshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1954
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1953-1954] / Medical Officer of Health, Berkshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/46 (page 7)
    Typhoid Fever. Of the two cases notified in 1953 as typhoid fever, one was eventually shown to be due to Salmonella typhi-murium. In the other case it was considered, on the basis of circumstantial evidence, that the infection was derived from a carrier, and all steps were immediately taken to prevent further cases arising from the source. No cases of typhoid fever were notified in 1954. Whooping Cough. The numbers of notified cases in 1953 and 1954 were respectively 1,106 and 710. There were no deaths in 1954, but three in 1953, including one in an infant under one, the others being in children between one and five. In 1953, the Council’s new arrangements for the distribution of special vaccine for immunisation against whooping cough came into operation, following the appearance of the second Report of the Medical Research Council on the subject. The scheme provides for the immunisation to be carried out by family doctors, as in the case of diphtheria immunisation and vaccination. For the reasons set out in the previous report, practitioners were asked to do their best to immunise infants early in life, and to begin at ten to twelve weeks if possible. During the year the new vaccine was given to 1,941 infants. It is to be hoped that this number will be increased in future years, and that an appreciable effect on the number of deaths from this disease in infants (even though the number has been small in any one year) will be apparent when a sequence of years has been observed. The number receiving the vaccine in 1954 was 2,902, of which 1,844 were infants under one. The investigations of the Medical Research Council suggested that an effective vaccine, as well as reducing substantially the chance of developing the disease at all, can also lessen the severity of the attack should it occur. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the use of this method of immunisation (provided care is taken to use a really effective type of vaccine) will also reduce the serious lung damage that can result from this disease in infancy, as well as reducing the number of deaths. It is going to be extremely difficult to virtually eliminate the risk of death, and of lung damage, from whooping cough, for a fair proportion of the deaths that do occur take place under two months of age, before immunity can be effectually built up by artificial means. It is of the greatest importance, however, that the process should be started as soon as possible, and it is urgently necessary to ascertain, by suitable trials, just how early in life immunisation can be begun. For the reasons given in the previous report, very early immunisation against diphtheria is undesirable ; neither is it necessary, however, for the latter disease is of little or no danger to the infant. It is to be regretted, of course, that combined immunisation against the two diseases remains, therefore, a difficult problem. Meanwhile, it is our duty to obtain the highest possible level of immunity against each disease, and to use only those methods that, in the light of the available knowledge, can guarantee this as far as possible. Vaccination against Smallpox. Under the County Council’s arrangements for vaccination, the numbers of primary vaccinations were 3,082 and 3,024 in 1953 and 1954 respectively, and the numbers of re-vaccinations 741 and 728. Poliomyelitis. During 1953, for the fifthyear during the eight years since 1947 (the relative exceptions were 1948, 1951, and 1954), there was a considerable prevalence