[Report 1925] / Medical Officer of Health, Rothwell (Northamptonshire) U.D.C.

  • Rothwell (Northamptonshire, England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1925] / Medical Officer of Health, Rothwell (Northamptonshire) U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/20 (page 6)
    5 from Kettering that a girl who had been working in a factory here had developed the disease the following day. Within a few hours every worker in the same room had been vaccina¬ ted, with very few exceptions, and those exceptions were not allowed out of their houses until the time of incubation had passed. One Rothwell youth, who had been staying in a house at Kettering where Small Pox had broken out, arrived very late one evening at my surgery, to ask whether he had better go to his home in Rothwell. On being advised to return to Kettering, he did so at once, and as he shortly after¬ wards contracted the disease, he probably saved us from another centre of infection. In all, we only had three cases, which were immediately removed to the Kettering Small Pox Hospital, and, in each case, every contact was vaccinated or kept within doors. I should like, at this point, to thank most cordially the Urban Council for the free hand they gave me, as their Medical Officer, throughout the whole period of anxiety, and the splendid way they backed me up in any suggestion I made. I should also like to thank the manu¬ facturers for their co-operation in the matter, and I think it is largely due to these two facts that we came off so lightly ; with so much coming and going between Kettering and Rothwell, we were indeed fortunate. VACCINATIONS.—It may be of interest to note the number of Vaccinations during the past five years. 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 Infants. 2 2 I I Adults. i (R.) 4 (these were going abroad) 3 130 (P.) 143 (R.)—273. Thus it will be seen that, except under exceptional circum¬ stances, Vaccination is practically non est in Rothwell. TUBERCULOSIS.—It is a wonderful record that there was no case of Tuberculosis notified during 1925, and only one death occurred. I think this speaks volumes for the healthy conditions in the factories, but I am afraid we cannot expect that this record could be maintained for another year, as of course, there are several cases still on the Tuberculosis list.