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

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Shoreditch 1915

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]

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15
amongst children at that age period. Allowing for errors in diagnosis the
mortality was 13.8 per cent. Amongst persons over five years of age the mortality
was 3.8, or allowing for errors of diagnosis 3.9, per cent. of the cases certified.

With respect to 261 of the cases certified during the year, they were distributed amongst males and females at certain age periods as set out in the subjoined table :—

Age Period.Male.Female.Total.
Under 1 year426
From 1 to 2 years121123
„ 2 „ 3 „151429
„ 3 „ 4„171532
„ 4 „ 5 „81321
„ 5 „ 10 „394281
„ 10„13 „82028
Over 13 years122941
Totals115146261

In 124 of the cases the patients were children attending school and in 97 of
these they were at school within a week of being certified as having the disease.
As noted in previous years, there were instances in which the children were at
school whilst suffering from diphtheria, before the nature of their illness was recognised.
In 102 other cases, although the patients themselves were not school-going
children, there were other children in the houses who were. In 32 instances the
histories showed that there had been cases of " sore throat" amongst the inmates of
the houses in which the patients resided. In 35 instances there was evidence
pointing to infection from previous cases in the Borough. In 178 instances the
houses were occupied by members of more than one family, in 55 by single families,
and in 28 instances the cases occurred in artisans' dwellings of the block type. With
regard to the sanitary condition of the dwellings, in 149 this was satisfactory, in 61
fairly so, and in 51 it was unsatisfactory, but these figures must not be taken as an
indication that a satisfactory sanitary condition is favourable to the occurrence
of diphtheria in houses ; their significance has been referred to in previous
reports.
The cases certified as diphtheria in the Metropolis numbered 9,180, the attack
rate being 2.0 per 1,000. The deaths numbered 700 and the death-rate was
0.15 per 1,000 population as estimated for 1914.
ENTERIC OR TYPHOID FEYER.
The cases notified numbered 22, including two certified as continued fever.
Of these, six were subsequently not regarded as being cases of typhoid fever. The
cases were certified at the rate of 0.2 per 1,000 population.