Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Wandsworth District, The Board of Works (Clapham, Putney, Streatham, Tooting & Wandsworth)]
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Your Committee decided to recommend the Board to
take the necessary steps to have measles added, but we
much regret that the matter has for the present fallen
through. It may be added in reference to the replies
from Medical Officers of Health printed above, that it
seems that in most of the towns where the notification
has been adopted, it has been done so recently that there
has not been sufficient time to form perfectly reliable
judgments. Measles tends to recur in periodic epidemics,
and we think that 5 years would not be too long a time for
a trial of the effect of notification, so as to include two
epidemic periods. There is no doubt that to get the full
benefit of a system of notification means of isolation
ought to be available, and, of course, at present there is
no such means in the Metropolis.
The following gives particulars of the number of notifications
received from each sub-district:—
Clapham. | Putney. | Streatham. | Tooting. | Wandsworth. | Total. | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Small Pox (modified) | .. | .. | .. | .. | 4 | 4 |
Diphtheria | 23 | 12 | 40 | .. | 89 | 164 |
Membraneous Croup | 2 | .. | .. | .. | 6 | 8 |
Scarlet Fever | 110 | 54 | 105 | 7 | 177 | 453 |
Enteric Fever | 20 | 3 | 14 | .. | 27 | 64 |
Continued Fever | .. | .. | .. | .. | 2 | 2 |
Typhus Fever | .. | .. | .. | .. | 1 | 1 |
Puerperal Fever | 3 | 2 | .. | 1 | 4 | 10 |
Erysipelas | 50 | 8 | 26 | 3 | 90 | 177 |
Totals | 208 | 79 | 185 | 11 | 400 | 883 |
An outline of the routine method adopted in the prevention
of infectious disease is here given.