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SMALL-POX.
Dating the half-year there were 10 cases notified. My attention was also
called to several doubtful cases, which in my opinion were chicken pox; the
subsequent course of the illnesses confirmed this.
I vaccinated and re-vaccinated all the inmates of the tenements that I
could persuade to be done. Printed cards giving the hours and places of
attendance of the Public Vaccinators were distributed.
The address given of two of the cases was the Salvation Army Shelter,
Charles Street. Vaccination notices were put up, and the Shelter disinfected
on both occasions.
The ventilation of the ground floor, at my request, has been improved,
but a further notice has been served as it is still unsatisfactory (one case of
scarlet fever and one of typhoid were also notified from this Shelter). Details
of all the cases were reported to your Sanitary Committee, and to the Local
Government Board.
The statistics of all epidemics of small-pox show the enormous value of
efficient vaccination and re-vaccination ; notwithstanding this, the proportion
of children that are not vaccinated has been increasing year by year since
1881, both in the Metropolis and the rest of England. In 1881, the proportion
of children unaccounted for in regard to vaccination (including cases
postponed) in the Metropolitan Unions was only 5.7 per cent, of the total
births. In 1891 this proportion had risen to 16.4 per cent., and is still rising.
In the Holborn Union the corresponding rates were 6.2 and 12.7, and in
1893 had risen to 14.2 per cent.