London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
East Ham 1926
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for East Ham]
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36
Scarlet Fever.
Excluding the forty-two patients remaining in the hospital at
the end of the year 1926, there were 288 completed cases of this
disease treated. Of these three died, giving a mortality rate of
104 per cent, as compared with a rate of 1'7 per cent, for the
previous year. The three fatal cases included a patient suffering
from the severe septic type of the disease, a case of scarlatina
maligna, and a third case in whom uraemia supervened.
The chief complications which occurred in the cases under treatment during the year were as follows :—
| Cervical Adenitis | 36 | Otitis Media | 22 |
| Rhinitis | 19 | Arthritis | 9 |
| Nephritis | 3 | Bronchitis | 2 |
| Chorea | 2 | ||
The following table gives particulars of the chief diseases and conditions associated with Scarlet Fever, which were present in the patients admitted during the year :—
| Morbilli | 1 | Diphtheria | 6 |
| Pertussis | 1 | Varicella | 10 |
| Scabies | 2 | Impetigo | 7 |
| Septic Wounds, Scalds and Burns | 5 | Conjunctivitis | 3 |
| Cretinism | 2 | ||
| Psoriasis | 1 | Rachitis | 1 |
Diphtheria.
Excluding the 31 cases remaining in the hospital at the end of
the year, 328 completed cases of diphtheria were treated during the
year 1926, and of this number eighteen died. This equals a case
mortality of 5'5 per cent, as compared with a rate of 3T2 per cent,
in the year 1925. Three of these fatal cases were of the haemorrhagic
type of diphtheria, one was suffering from acute pulmonary
tuberculosis and one from marasmus, whilst the remaining thirteen
children were admitted to hospital in an advanced stage of the
disease when toxaemia was so profound that antitoxic serum treatment
fyas carried out too late to prove successful. The average
period of illness, prior to admission to hospital, in these thirteen
cases was 5"6 days, and in ten instances the patients died within
twenty-four hours of their admission to hospital.