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173
VACCINATION.
I have to thank Mr. Waterer, the Vaccination Officer, for supplying me with
the numbers of persons vaccinated during 1892. These are
Number of Primary Vaccinations 4,621
„ Re-Vaccinations 2,718
I calculated last year that 560 infants were not vaccinated, but for 1892, after
deducting those who died before the age of 3 months, it appears that 730 children
more than those born in the year were vaccinated.
Undoubtedly the large number of persons who availed themselves of this
protection against small-pox is due to the outbreak of that disease in the
Metropolis, from which it had been absent for seven years, during which time
many were lulled into the belief that vaccination was unnecessary and even
dangerous. The experience of last year, however, inflicted a sharp lesson on some
of those misguided persons, and the parish has been put to an expense in coping
with this outbreak, which it would have been spared had vaccination been
efficiently carried out in previous years.
In a report published in The British Medical Journal on a number of outbreaks
of small-pox throughout the country in 1892, it has been calculated that at
a low estimate each case costs the ratepayers £8 10s. At this figure the outbreak
in Shoreditch cost £620 10s., without counting the loss by reason of deaths, of
interference with business, &c., which would be a serious item had compensation
been allowed.
In the list of deaths, 3 are entered as being the result of vaccination.
Independent enquiry, however, has been made into these cases, and I am given to
understand that while vaccination had been performed, death was not the result of
the operation, but was due to other causes such as might have followed any
abrasion or irritation of the skin.
FOURTH QUARTER OF 1892.
A separate report not having been published for this quarter of the year, 1
append a table (No.V.) similar to that presented for the previous quarter. From it
may be seen that the death rate presents a marked improvement over that for the
preceding two years when measles, whooping cough and influenza were prevalent.
The zymotic death rate of 186 also compares favourably with that (1.89) for all
London. In respect of the sub-districts there were no deaths from any of the
principal zymotic diseases, except diphtheria, in Shoreditch South, none from small
pox and diphtheria in Hoxton New Town, none from small pox, scarlet fever,
whooping cough or fever in the Old Town, and none from small pox or whooping
cough in Haggerston.
The birth rate 35.4 is the same as in the second quarter, and is especially low
in Shoreditch South District.