Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]
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age period. Allowing for errors in diagnosis, the mortality was 7.0 per cent.
Amongst persons over five years of age the mortality was 0.5, allowing for errors
in diagnosis. The case mortality for the year is the lowest so far recorded for
the Borough.
With respect to 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 year | 4 | 15 | 19 |
From 1 to 2 years | 25 | 13 | 38 |
„ 2 to 3 years | 20 | 23 | 43 |
„ 3 to 4 years | 19 | 30 | 49 |
„ 4 to 5 years | 13 | 12 | 25 |
„ 5 to 10 years | 33 | 41 | 74 |
„ 10 to 13 years | 19 | 26 | 45 |
Over 13 years | 25 | 47 | 72 |
Totals | 158 | 207 | 365 |
In 157 of the cases the patients were children attending school, and in 131 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 169 other cases, although the patients themselves were not school-going children,
there were other children in the houses who were. In 36 instances the histories showed
that there had been cases of "sore throat" amongst the inmates of the houses in
which the patients resided. In 38 instances there was evidence pointing to infection
from previous cases in the Borough. In 273 instances the houses were occupied by
members of more than one family, in 63 by single families, and in 29 instances the
cases occurred in artisans' dwellings of the block type. With regard to the sanitary
condition of the dwellings, in 233 this was satisfactory, in 46 fairly so, and in 86
it was unsatisfactory, but these figures must not be taken as an indication that a
satisfactory 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 10,389, the attack
rate being 2.3 per 1,000. The deaths numbered 602 and the death-rate was 0.13
per 1,000 population, the case-mortality being 5.8 per cent.
ENTERIC FEVER.
The cases certified numbered four, being at the rate of 0.03 per 1,000 population.
The cases were in Moorfields, Hoxton, Wenlock and Whitmore Wards. The case