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Small-pox.
Nine cases of Small-pox were notified in Fulham during the
year.
In January, two cases were notified in a house in Claxton
Grove, and the son, living in Chaldon Road, of one of the
patients, who had visited his father before the nature of his illness
was suspected, was subsequently attacked.
It was ascertained that the husband of one of the patients had
been employed in December as a carpenter at the Hull Small-pox
Hospital, the disease being then very prevalent in that town, and
though exposed to infection had refused to be vaccinated. He
returned home just before Christmas and was taken ill a few days
afterwards, but the nature of the disease, which was unquestionably
Small-pox in a mild form, was not recognised.
It is worthy of note that a similar case occurred in Fulham in
1894, when a man who had been working at the Nottingham
Small-pox Hospital and had refused to be vaccinated had an
unrecognised attack of the disease shortly after his return to
Fulham, which gave rise to 20 cases in the neighbourhood. It
would be well if local authorities insisted that everyone employed
in a Small-pox Hospital should be vaccinated, and, when they leave
their employment, information should certainly be sent to the
Sanitary Authority of the district to which they are returning, in
the same way as information is sent by Port Sanitary Authorities
respecting passengers who have arrived from infected ports.