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

View report page

Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London

Shoreditch 1911

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]

This page requires JavaScript

Table: Subjoined is a list of the infectious diseases which are notifiable to the Medical Officer of Health, showing the number of cases certified in the Borough for each of the four quarters of the year, and the numbers and percentages of such cases which were removed to hospital for treatment

Subjoined is a list of the infectious diseases which are notifiable to the Medical Officer of Health, showing the number of cases certified in the Borough for each of the four quarters of the year, and the numbers and percentages of such cases which were removed to hospital for treatment

Disease.First Quarter.Second Quarter.Third Quarter.Fourth Quarter.Total.Deaths.
Small Pox3......3..
Scarlet Fever or Scar- latiua282783962347
Diphtheria & Membra- nous Croup2739465917122
Typhus............
Cholera............
Enteric Fever (Typhoid)12613221
Continued Fever............
Relapsing Fever............
Puerperal Fever122..52
Erysipelas312236701594
Plague............
Cerebro-Spinal Fever2..1144
Glanders............
Anthrax............
Hydrophobia............
Acute Anterior Poliomyelitis......22..
Ophthalmia Neonatorum11381032..
Totals9410518225163238
Numbers and percentages of cases removed to hospitals6371141171446
67%67 %77%68%70%

Text

Copy text to clipboard

Chicken-pox was notifiable for a part of the first and during the second quarter
of the year. Some 87 cases were certified. As compared with the figures for 1910
the numbers of cases of scarlet fever, diphtheria, erysipelas and puerperal fever were
increased. There were 3 cases of small pox as against 2 in 1910. Cases of enteric fever
show a marked decrease, the reduction in the number being over 50 per cent. Acute
anterior polio-myelitis became a notifiable infectious disease in the County of London
from September 1st, and ophthalmia neonatorum from March 13th, 1911. The
deaths from the principal zymotic diseases which are notifiable, namely, small pox,
scarlet fever, diphtheria and enteric fever were at the rate of 0'27 per 1000
inhabitants, whereas the rate from the principal zymotic diseases which are not
notifiable, namely—measles, whooping cough and diarrhoea was 2'9 or more than
ten times as great.
ISOLATION OF INFECTIOUS CASES.
The cases of small pox, scarlet fever and diphtheria removed to hospital are all
taken to the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board. Cases of enteric fever,
puerperal fever, and erysipelas not unfrequently go to the Shoreditch Infirmary
and general hospitals in the neighbourhood of the Borough. The notifiable
infectious diseases, cases of which are receivable into the hospitals of the Metropolitan
Asylums Board are:—Smallpox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, enteric fever andcerebro-