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
Kensington 1909
Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health 1909
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21
WHOOPING COUGH.
The deaths from Whooping Cough numbered 40; the number of cases brought to the notice
of the Public Health Department by the schools being 218. In the homes visited 74 additional
cases were discovered; the total number of cases dealt with by the Sanitary Inspectors being 292.
An advisory leaflet was left with the mother of each family visited. The Wornington Road
School reported 63 cases, and 39 cases were notified from the school in Portobello Road.
INFLUENZA.
Influenza, which is apt to be considered a trivial ailment, caused 75 deaths, a number which is
very much in excess of the number of deaths causcd by any other infectious disease, if consumption
be excepted. The bulk of the deaths occurred in late middle life or old age, 58 out of the total
number of 75 deaths being registered in persons over 55 years of age. The 17 remaining deaths
occurred in childhood or during the working years of life, and were nearly equal in number to the
deaths attributed to diphtheria.
Section 68 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, which forbids any person suffering from
a dangerous infectious disease to expose himself in any street, public place or shop, might with
advantage be made applicable to an infectious disease so dangerous to life as influenza.
EPIDEMIC DIARRHOEA.
During 1909 there were 50 deaths attributed to diarrhœa, of which 36 occurred in infants under one year of age. The death-rate from diarrhœa was 0·27 per 1,000. The number of deaths in previous years has been as follows:—
| Year. | Deaths from Diarrhœa. |
|---|---|
| 1905 | 90 |
| 1906 | 142 |
| 1907 | 30 |
| 1908 | 88 |
| 1909 | 50 |
The above totals do not include deaths certified as due to enteritis.
Owing to a comparatively cool summer the number of deaths has been well below the average for the past five years. Detailed information was obtained as to the circumstances attending the occurrence of 35 cases of fatal diarrhœa. The ages of the persons attacked were as follows:—
| Age | Number attacked. |
|---|---|
| Under 1 year | 26 |
| 1 to 2 years | 5 |
| 2 to 5 years | 1 |
| 25 years and upwards | 3 |
| Total | 35 |
Of the 26 infants who died, none were being reared on breast milk alone at the time when
they fell ill. 19 were being fed on new milk and seven on a sweetened brand of condensed milk.
No less than 16 cases occurred in houses where other persons were attacked with diarrhoea
either in the same family or in other families in the same tenement dwelling. Details as to the
occurrence of multiple cases in the same house are given in the following table:—