London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Shoreditch 1895

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]

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Females suffered more frequently from the disease than males, but the mortality
was much heavier this year amongst the male sufferers, 30.8 per cent. of the
males attacked died, whilst the female case-mortality was 18.9. Last year the casemortality
was practically the same in the two sexes.
DIARRHCEA
The deaths due to this cause numbered 172, of which 160 were of children below
the age of 5 years, and 130 were under 1 year. The following figures shew the
number of deaths from diarrhoea during the past four years.

TABLE XVIII.

Year.1892.1893.1894.1895.
Number of Deaths9317073172

The death-rate from diarrhoea was l.4 per 1000 as compared with 0.59 in 1894
and 1.38 in 1893.
From the middle of June to the beginning of November the disease was prevalent
in Shoreditch. The number of deaths increased week by week, reaching a maximum
of 26 in the third week of July. The numbers then declined until the middle of
September when they again increased, attaining a second but lower maximum in the
second week of October, when the number of deaths again decreased. It will be
remembered that the summer was very prolonged, hot and dry, and during September
and October the heat was almost tropical. It was supposed that the failure of the
East London Water Company to give a constant supply of water contributed largely
to the causation of the high diarrhoea death-rate, but there was no evidence in
Shoreditch to shew that such was the case. The number of deaths in the metropolis
attributed to diarrhoea was 3,600, the death-rate per 1,000 living being 0.83, a rate
higher than in any year since 1887.
One case of cholera was notified early in June: a man aged between 50 and 60
was taken ill with diarrhoea and vomiting and died in the course of 40 hours from the
commencement of the attack. A post-mortem examination was made and a portion
of the viscera with its contents was submitted to Prof. Klein, who made a bacteriological
examination, the result of which was negative. The case was one of acute
summer diarrhoea which is not infrequently fatal to people getting on in years.
TYPHUS FEVER.
There were no cases of this disease notified in Shoreditch during the past year.
Owing to the progress made in improving the conditions under which the poor live,
typhus fever is gradually becoming extinct in the Metropolis, and the number of cases
now occurring, in proportion to the population, is infinitesimal.