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
Hackney 1898
Report on the sanitary condition of the Hackney District for the year 1898
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86
Families lodged in one room are obliged, when disinfection is
done, either to lodge with their friends or pay for accommodation
elsewhere, and this is true to some extent for two-roomed tenements.
Section 60 (4) of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, not
only gives the local authority power to provide accommodation in
these circumstances, but makes it a duty to make provision. I have
already alluded to the risk to the community at large, in persons
from infected homes indescriminately associating with healthy
persons.
The following table shows the number of cases of infectious
disease which occurred in one-roomed tenancies during the year ;
but in only three of these was application made to the Public Health
Department for accomodation. Payment was made to the applicants
at the rate of 2/6 per diem, in lieu of accommodation.
List of one-roomed tenancies in which notifiable infectious disease occurred during the year 1898.
| DISEASE. | J an. | Feb. | March | April | May | June | July | August | Sep. | October | Nov. | Dec. | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scarlet Fever | 5 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 44 |
| Diphtheria | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 19 |
| Enteric Fever | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Erysipel as | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 14 |
| TOTALS | 7 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 11 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 82 |
I should like here to remind the members of the Vestry that
they have already agreed to provide a shelter for persons during the
disinfection of their homes; and I am not aware of any powerful
reason why it should not be immediately erected.