London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Battersea 1909
Report on the health of the Metropolitan Borough of Battersea for the year 1909
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31
So-called "return cases" were again more numerous in 1909.
In all such cases special enquiries were made, with results more
or less suggestive of the recently discharged patient having been
responsible for the infection in the new case.
Milk as a factor in the spread of infection did not arise
during 1909.
The following are the numbers and percentages to total cases of "return cases " of scarlet fever since 1905:—
| Total cases. | "Return" cases | Per cent. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1905 | 801 | 23 | 2.87 |
| 1906 | 1,011 | 34 | 3.36 |
| 1907 | 922 | 47 | 5.09 |
| 1908 | 1,099 | 52 | 4.73 |
| 1909 | 702 | 45 | 6.41 |
The number of cases sent back from hospitals notified as
scarlet fever, and in which the diagnosis was found to be
erroneous, was 31, or 4.2 per cent., as compared with 4.9 per cent,
in 1908.
Diphtheria.
The number of diphtheria notifications received during 1909
(including membranous croup) in the Borough of Battersea was
265, a marked decrease as compared with 1908, when the figure
was 340.
The distribution of the disease in the three registration subdistricts of the Borough, together with the number of deaths among both hospital and home-treated patients during 1909 is shown in the following table:—
| Registration Sub-Districts. | No. of cases notified. | Cases treated at home. | Cases removed to hospital. | No. of Deaths. | Case-mortality per cent. | Case-rate per 1,000 population. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| At home. | At hospital. | Total. | ||||||
| East Battersea | 137 | 4 | 133 | 15 | 15 | 10.9 | 1.7 | |
| North-West Battersea | 69 | 2 | 67 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 8.7 | 1.3 |
| South-West Battersea | 59 | 8 | 51 | 2 | 2 | 3.4 | 0.9 | |
It will be noted that diphtheria has been fairly uniformly
distributed over the Borough, though on the whole East Battersea
and North-West Battersea have suffered more than the other