Contents
List of Tables
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1: Introduction
Poliomyelitis: the origin of the word, its definition, and its impact on the victim.
This project
The sources of information and evidence. Why it was undertaken.
Chapter 2: One day in July 1938
One vivid case
The British Newspaper Archive
What the BNA archives. How news is gathered and published.
Short lives
Examples from my own family.
The Ministry of Health
A question in Parliament. The release of news through the Press Association.
Chapter 3: Notification
The history of infectious diseases and notifications.
The NOIDs database
The compilation of routine national statistics. Changes in diagnostic practices.
Historic phases
Three distinct phases in the twentieth century.
Chapter 4: Epidemiology
My interest in statistics.
Bradford Hill
The first analysis of inter-war outbreaks in Britain.
Analyses
How Bradford Hill analysed the data. What he concluded.
Chapter 5: The British Medical Journal
A regular section in the journal headed ‘Epidemiological Notes’.
The course of the outbreak
Week by week reports.
The end-of-year review
Graphs and maps. The idea of outbreaks having a focus.
Causality
How infection was spread.
Chapter 6: Annual reports
Introduction to the annual reports of local Medical Officers of Health (MOHs).
The Wellcome Collection
Searching the Collection’s archive for MOH reports.
The contents
How reports were organized.
Population and cases
How statistics were extracted and prevalence rates calculated. The identification of seven key centres. How rates varied across the country.
Chapter 7: Essex
The MOHs in the key county.
The 1926 outbreak
An earlier significant outbreak.
The 1938 outbreak
The part of Essex most affected.
The origin of the outbreak
Where it started.
The subsequent course of events
How it spread.
Dr. Bullough’s report
How the MOH for Essex reported on the outbreak.
Dr. Hatton’s report
Likewise, the MOH for Braintree, faced with the highest prevalence rate.
Colchester and Harwich
How the outbreak spread eastwards.
Adjacent areas
Impact on the south of Essex and adjacent parts of Suffolk.
Looking back
How the outbreak in Essex was, and might have been, seen in retrospect.
Chapter 8: Breaking news
The grapevine.
The awful horror
One published account of hearing the news on the grapevine.
When newspapers break the news
How newspapers construct news stories. One first-hand account of the impact on one family. A search of the Mass-Observation Archive. The first published reports of the outbreaks in 1938.
The seven centres
How the seven key centres were identified and became the national story.
What the MOHs said
Views expressed by three of the seven MOHs in interviews with journalists.
Chapter 9: Outbreaks elsewhere
Other counties with high prevalence rates.
South Wales
The distinctive approach of Thomas Evans, the MOH for Swansea. Evidence of the spread to neighbouring areas.
Lincolnshire
The impact of outbreaks in a sparsely populated rural county.
Oxford
A well-documented outbreak centred on a city.
The end of the epidemic
Cases in January 1939. The launch of the Infantile Paralysis Fellowship.
Chapter 10: The iron lung
A vivid description of how one victim of the disease was treated in an iron lung. Its invention, and how it became a global news story.
Eric Marchant
The first victim to be treated with an iron lung in Britain, in October 1937.
Treloar’s Hospital
An innovative hospital for the treatment of children with polio. Iron lungs and fresh air.
Arrangements with local authorities
How local authorities were able to send victims to Treloar’s.
Lord Nuffield
The philanthropist who funded the mass production of iron lungs.
Chapter 11: School closures
The impact of the disease on schools.
Boarding schools
The dilemma over what to do when pupils fall ill.
Felsted School
One notable example in Essex in 1938. Relations between school and village.
Wellington College
Another notable example, in Berkshire, late in the year.
School Medical Officers
Their concerns as expressed in reports archived in the Wellcome Collection.
Chapter 12: Isolation
How victims of infectious disease were isolated to reduce the risk to others.
Hill House Hospital
Yellow fever in Swansea. The opening of an isolation hospital.
Isolation hospitals
Guidelines on how hospitals can minimize the risk of infection. A biographical account of being a child isolated in hospital.
Migration and evacuation
The significance of ‘home’. The movement of patients, carriers and those at risk. Preparations for war.
Crossing boundaries
Victims who crossed local authority boundaries prior to falling ill or in seeking hospital treatment. The isolation of affected communities.
Chapter 13: The press
The importance of newspapers in reporting outbreaks.
The Essex Chronicle
A weekly newspaper. News of individual victims. The involvement of MOHs.
The South Wales Evening Post
The collaboration between local newspaper and MOH. Precautions and preventive medicine.
The Worthing Herald
The impact of outbreaks on local businesses. Conflict between national and local newspapers.
Privacy and publicity
How to report a spreading outbreak while not generating alarm.
Chapter 14: So what?
Some basic facts about the 1938 epidemic.
The collation of sources
The value of different accounts in understanding how infectious disease spreads.
Concluding thoughts
So how infectious was poliomyelitis? Was there an epidemic in Britain in 1938, albeit a small one? Why was it an exceptional year?
Postscript
Testimony from another affected family.
Index
- Post
Nothing to be Alarmed About 