View report page

One hundred and thirty-one persons from 105 houses were
notified as suffering from this disease as against 281 and 229
in the years before mentioned. In one house there were 5
cases; in another house, 4; in three houses, 3; in 16 houses, 2;
and in the remainder, 1 case each.
The average attack and death-rates for the last three
quinquennial periods and the past three years are as follows :—
Attack Rate. Death Rate.
1891—1895 4.8 .02 per thousand of the population.
1896—1900 3.3 .04 „ „ „
1901—1905 2.3 .02 „ „ „
Year 1906 4.5 .1 „ „ „
Year 1907 5.4 .09 „ „ „
Year 1908 2.4 .05 „ „ „
One hundred and three, or 78 per cent., of the patients
were treated in the Isolation Hospital, 3 terminating fatally,
corresponding to a case rate of 2.3 per cent. and a death-rate of
.05 per thousand of the population.
The incidence of the disease was fairly even throughout
the year, slight rises occurring late in January and November;
three consecutive weeks in March and April passed without a
notification of this or any other notifiable disease being received.
About 55 per cent. of the cases notified were children of
school age, namely, 5 to 15 years, and of these 51 attended
the following schools:—Effra Road Girls' and Infants' School,
4; Queen's Road Girls' and Infants' School, 10; Queen's Road
Boys' School, 4; Trinity Girls' and Infants' School, 6; Trinity
Boys' School, 1; Haydon's Road Girls' and Infants' School,
3; Haydon's Road Boys' School, 4; Dundonald Girls' and
Infants' School, 2; Dundonald Boys' School, 1; St. Mary's
Girls' and Infants' School, 3; Central Girls' and Infants'
School, 3; Central Boys' School, 2; Durnsford Road Girls'
and Infants' School, 1; Private Schools, 4; Schools outside
the district, 3.
There has been a steadily decreasing mortality from this
disease during the past 30 or 40 years, and, during this period,
its character has undergone a marked change. The decreased
death-rate is not due to a smaller number of cases occurring,
but to the nature of the disease being much less virulent. In
fact the average case now is of a very mild type indeed, which
may and does account at times for a large increase in the
number of cases; the early symptoms not being noticed the
patient mixes with others, and the disease is thus spread.
6