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1930
34
the period between November 16th and December 6th the house
was visited by very many people. Among the contacts was one
person who lived in Acton and 4 others who worked here, but
who lived in Hammersmith. The contact who resided here contracted
Small-Pox and 3 out of the 4 contacts who worked here
but resided elsewhere also contracted the disease. I understand
that other contacts of this same case have also contracted SmallPox.
One of the contacts caused us much anxiety. The four
were employed in local laundries and the proprietors refused to
take the risk of Small-Pox amongst their employees, and
arrangements were made for the contacts to keep away from work
until quarrantine was over or re-vaccination had been successful.
As usual in missed cases, some contacts are either missed or their
identity concealed, and one of the laundry workers was not
included in the list. She developed Small-Pox, the rash appearing
on December 5th and she was at work on December 4th.
Other medical officers of health have told me of cases which
have occurred in the late autumn and winter of this year, and
in which the infectivity appears to be high. In former times,
winter was always considered a favourable season for epidemics
of Small-Pox in temperate regions, and various reasons were
given for this seasonal incidence. One of the favourite reasons
was that there was more overcrowding of person.s in houses in
winter and thus a condition favourable to the spread of infection
was produced. No satisfactory reason has been adduced for the
varying degree of infcctivity of Small-Pox, even when the type
of the disease does not vary.
ISOLATION HOSPITAL.
During the year 459 cases were admitted into the Hospital
compared with 419 in 1929. On January 1st, 1930, there were
75 cases in the Hospital and on January 1st, 1931, there were 41.
476 cases were discharged and there were 22 deaths.