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

Lambeth 1933

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Lambeth Borough]

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Table: Smallpox. The type of small pox, variola minor, which has been endemic in the district now for six years, is mild and it has all along bred true, i.e., mild cases, give rise to mild cases only and never to the toxic or virulent form.

Smallpox. The type of small pox, variola minor, which has been endemic in the district now for six years, is mild and it has all along bred true, i.e., mild cases, give rise to mild cases only and never to the toxic or virulent form.

Age GroupsVaccinated and RevaccinatedVaccinated in InfancyUnvaccinatedTotals
0—1——11
1—5——66
5—15——4545
15—25—13940
25 and over—171734
All Ages—18108126

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The protection afforded by vaccination can be gauged from the
table showing the vaccination state of the 126 cases notified.
In the latter part of the year the epidemic died away and no
further cases were notified. So far as can be gauged the proportion
of the population unprotected and therefore at risk was greater and
not less than before, since vaccination is now practised to a less
extent than a year and more ago, when the disease was prevalent.
There was reason to suppose that the disease would continue to
spread unchecked, but on the contrary it did not. There have been
a few sporadic cases in adjoining districts since, but so far as is
known the disease has for the time being vanished from Lambeth.