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
London County Council 1911
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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22
Annual Report of the London County Council, 1911.
With this letter a copy of a Memorandum which the Board s medical officer had prepared on
the subject of measles was enclosed.
This memorandum was followed by the Metropolitan Asylums (Measles) Order of the 30th May,
1911, which provided that non-pauper cases of measles might be received into the hospitals of the Metropolitan
Asylums Board, on the recommendation of the medical officer of health of the district concerned.
Admission, however, is confined to children of the poorest class and to urgent cases recommended by
medical officers of health. 3,144 patients suffering from measles were admitted during the year, and
there were 438 deaths, giving a fatality rate of 13.9 per cent. The fact that the cases admitted to the
Board's hospitals are specially selected, as has been noted above, of course explains the exceptionally
high fatality rate.
In Stepney where measles was a notifiable disease from the week ended May 13th to the week
ended December 2nd, 1,819 cases were notified, whilst in the same period there were 92 deaths, giving
roughly a case mortality rate of 5 per cent. The medical officer of health of Stepney discusses the whole
question fully in his annual report and deals particularly with incidence, mortality, and the effect of isolation
and school closure.
Scarlet Fever.
The cases of scarlet fever notified in the Administrative County of London during 1911 (52 weeks)
numbered 10,483, compared with 10,509 in 1910 (52 weeks). The number of deaths registered from
this cause was 172 in the year 1911 (52 weeks), compared with 214 in 1910 (52 weeks).
The scarlet fever case-rates, death-rates and case-mortality for 1911 and preceding periods a shown in the following table :—
| Period. | Death-rate per 1,000 persons living. | Case-rate par 1,000 persons living. | Case-morlality per cent. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1861-1870 | 1.13 | ||
| 1871-1880 | 0.60 | ||
| 1881-1890 | 0.33 | ||
| 1891-1900 | 0.196 | 4.8 | 3.8 |
| 1901-1910 | 0.106 | 3.9 | 2.7 |
| 1901 | 0.136 | 4.1 | 3.2 |
| 1902 | 0.126 | 4.0 | 3.1 |
| 1903 | 0.086 | 2.8 | 2.9 |
| 1904 | 0.086 | 30 | 2.7 |
| 1905 | 0.126 | 4.3 | 2.8 |
| 1906 | 0.126 | 4.5 | 2.6 |
| 1907 | 0.146 | 5.7 | 2.5 |
| 1908 | 0.126 | 4.8 | 2.5 |
| 1909 | 0.086 | 3.8 | 2.2 |
| 1910 | 0.056 | 2.3 | 2.0 |
| 1911 | 0.046 | 2.3 | 1.6 |
Scarlet fever
death-rates.
The death-rate in each year since 1858 in relation to the mean death-rate of the period 18591911
will be seen on reference to diagram (H). It will be observed that the death-rate of 1911 was
the lowest recorded in London.
The monthly case-rate and case-mortality in each of the years 1891-1911 in relation to the
mean of the whole period is shown in diagram (L).
In 1911 it was exceeded by all except Bristol, West Ham, Bradford, Nottingham and Leicester.
| Town. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bradford | 0.07 | 0.03 | |||
| Greater London | 0.10 | 0.03 | Hull | 0.04 | 0.05 |
| Liverpool | 0.25 | 0.17 | Newcastle-on-Tyne | 0.07 | 0.05 |
| Manchester | 0.18 | 0.06 | Nottingham | 0.05 | 0.03 |
| Birmingham | 0.15 | 0.12 | Stoke-on-Trent | 0.18 | 0.26 |
| Sheffield | 0.20 | 0.06 | Portsmouth | 0.06 | 0.09 |
| Leeds | 0.07 | 0.10 | Salford | 0.25 | 0.09 |
| Bristol | 0.05 | 0.04 | Leicester | 0.14 | 0.04 |
| West Ham | 0.16 | 0.02 |
Scarlet fever
death-rates
in large
English
towns.
(a) The Infectious Disease (Notification) Act came into force in 1889. (b) see footnote (c) page 2.