[Report 1950] / Medical Officer of Health, Dudley County Borough.

  • Dudley (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1950
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1950] / Medical Officer of Health, Dudley County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    50/84 (page 48)
    The role of the fly in the spread of Poliomyelitis has never been conclusively established but there is no reason to suppose that it played a large part in the present outbreak especially as the summer was far from hot and flies no more than usually abundant. Without going into other possible sources it may be said that no definite source of infection was established in the town during the course of the outbreak. As regards the spread of the disease from one person to another, there are two theories, one that the spread is an airborne one from the throat of the infected person, the other that the disease is spread by means of the faeces of infected persons. Both these methods of infection seem to be possible but further evidence will be necessary before it can be decided which of the two is the more important. The majority of cases were admitted to Moxley Hospital and the remainder to neighbouring hospitals in West Bromwich, Wolver- hampton, and Stourbridge. One case which arose in the hop fields was admitted to the Hereford Hospital. The advisability of warning mothers not to take their children to the hop fields during the out- break was considered but no such advice was given, as the disease was beginning to abate when the hop picking season started. As it turned out, only one case arose and it was established that the infection must have been contracted in Dudley before the child left. All cases were nursed in hospital during and beyond the infectious stage of the illness and were discharged either to their own homes or to special orthopaedic hospitals. Those cases discharged to their homes were followed up at once by Health Visitors and all cases in which there was a residual paralysis were referred to the Orthopaedic Centre at “ The Firs ” Clinic for physiotherapy and remedial exer- cises under the care of the Orthopaedic Surgeon. Poliomyelitis can be divided generally into two main categories, the paralytic and the non-paralytic. In the present outbreak 75% (47) of the cases were of the paralytic type and 25% (16) of the cases were of the non-paralytic type. This is a rather high percentage of paralytic cases as generally one can expect 30% or more of the cases to escape paralysis. These, of course, are the figures of cases originally notified and do not represent the final results. It is considered that the results of treatment of a residual paralysis following Poliomyelitis cannot be finally assessed until two years after treatment has commenced. Before this report was prepared, every case was visited by a Health Visitor. These visits were made nearly a year after the first case was notified, in order to assess the after effects of the outbreak at this time. The results are shown in the accompanying table. Table II No. of Deaths Very slight paralysis with no marked disability Facial paralysis only Definite paralysis with disability No paralysis or other after effects Total 4 6 5 19 29 63