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
Islington 1910
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Islington, Metropolitan Borough of]
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160
19101
"The following is a summary of the action taken by the Public Healtl Department with respect to these cases:—
| Number of schools where disinfection has been carried out | 1 |
| Comprising (No. of classrooms so disinfected) | 2 |
| Number of schools where exclusion has been adopted ... | 19 |
| Comprising (No. of classrooms) | 44 |
| Schools where closure has been adopted | 1 (partial) |
| Comprising (No. of classrooms) | 2 |
" The number of deaths registered from Measles in the fortnight ending
December 10th, which is the last date for which the full return is available,
has been 27. This is a decrease of 7 on the number registered in the preceding
fortnight, but an increase of 26 on the corresponding period for 1909.
" I do not expect that there will be any great decrease in the mortality from
the disease until after the beginning of the new year.
The Medical Officer of Health reported to his Public Health Committee
on January 23rd, 1911, and thus brought the history of the disease to the end
of the year:—
" The epidemic of measles, I regret to report, still continues. It has now
lasted for practically 35 weeks, the first death being registered in the 6th
week of the second quarter of last year, from which date, at first gradually, and
then more quickly, it increased iin virulence, so that while in the second quarter
there were only 8 deaths, in the third there were 21, and in the fourth 136.
I might also mention as a remarkable fact that in the first quarter there was
only 1 death, which is the best record of the borough since 1891. Now the
death return for the first quarter was 52 below the average of 20 years, of
the second 48, of the third 22, while that of the fourth quarter was 94 above
it. From these figures it will be seen that the mortality during the last quarter
of the year was exceptionally heavy. Greater mortality has, however, been
experienced in a single quarter, for in the second quarter of 1887 there were
213 deaths registered, in the first quarter of 1896, 170, and in the first quarter
of 1898, 183. In this last mentioned case the mortality was preceded in the
fourth quarter of 1897 with a return of 72 deaths, and succeeded by one of
183 deaths in the 2nd quarter of 1898.