Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Report upon the public health and sanitary condition of the Parish of St. Mary, Battersea during the year1895
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1st. The sick should be separated from the healthy. This
is especially important in the case of first attacks
in a locality or a household.
2nd. The sputa of the sick should, especially in the acute
stage of the disease, be received into vessels containing
disinfectants. Infected articles and rooms
should be cleansed and disinfected.
3rd. When Influenza threatens, unnecessary assemblage
of persons should be avoided.
4th. Buildings and rooms in which many people necessarily
congregate should be efficiently aerated and cleansed
during the intervals of occupation.
It should be borne in mind that the liability to contract
Influenza, and also the danger of an attack, if contracted, are
increased by depressing conditions, such as exposure to cold,
and to fatigue whether mental or physical. Attention should
hence be paid at epidemic periods to all measures tending to the
maintenance of health, such as the use of clothing of suitable
warmth, and a sufficiency of wholesome food.
Persons who are attacked by Influenza should at once seek
rest, warmth, and medical treatment, and they should bear in
mind that the risk of relapse, with dangerous complications,
constitutes a chief danger of the disease.
R. Thorne Thorne.
Local Government Board,
Medical Department,
March 6th, 1895.
It will be perceived that the contents of the above memorandum
are in accord with the precautions issued by this parish
early in 1894, and now re-issued for the guidance of the public.
Table XII. illustrates the epidemic or zymotic mortality for
the past eleven years with the resulting death rates. The
number of deaths from each class of disease is shewn. The
zymotic death rate for 1895 was 2.9 per thousand persons, being
a fractional point above 1895, which was 2.8, but being much
ower than the decennial zymotic rate.