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Upon the recovery or removal of a patient the necessary disinfection
has been carried out, consisting of the stripping and limewashing of the
infected room after fumigation, and of disinfecting the bedding and
infected articles and clothing in the Council's steam disinfector.
Enteric fever, or Typhoid Fever as it is also called, is slowly but
surely succumbing to the measures which have been directed against it.
The part played by shellfish in spreading the infection is becoming
more and more obvious, and new have been made for
controlling and gathering the sale of mussels and other shellfish. The
" carrier" problem is more difficult of solution, as a " carrier " is only
discoverable after a fairly large number of cases have occurred, and
it is sometimes a very difficult matter to deal with a known " carrier."
The situation is this: The carrier of the germs of enteric fever may
be a person who earns his or her living by preparing food for other
people, and although it may have been some years since he or she had
enteric fever, the person is a continual source of danger to the community,
and this danger can only be removed by supplying the individual with
other employment, which will offer no opportunity for the contamination
of food.
The death-rate for Deptford was 0.01 per 1.000. The ease mortality
for 1919 was 25 per cent., compared with 33.3 per cent, four
years ago.
The rate of mortality for England and Wales was 0.01, for the
great towns 0.01 for the 148 smaller towns 0.01, and for the County of
London 0.01.
The cases distributed in the different wards as follows: —
East 1, North 1, North-West 4, South-East 1 and South 1,
Bacteriological examinations were made of 6 specimens of blood,
of which were found to be positive and 4 negative.

Seventy cases of Erysipelas have been notified during 1919. There
were no deaths registered from the disease within the borough or in
outlying institutions. In each notified case the premises have been
visited and enquiries made, and, where necessary, disinfection performed.