London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hampstead 1895

Report on the sanitary condition of the Parish of St. John, Hampstead for the year 1895

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Thus, whilst under the headings of enteric fever and
diarrhœa there has been some excess, there has been a considerable
diminution under the heads of small-pox, scarlet
fever, diphtheria, measles, and whooping cough.
Small-Pox.—No death from this cause occurred, and it is
satisfactory to report that only two cases of small pox were
registered in the year. One of these cases was that of a male
aged 28, who became infected in Bermondsey, and the other
an inmate of the North London Consumption Hospital, who
had recently been admitted from a lodging house in the East
of London, from which a porter suffering from small-pox had
been removed. Both these cases were stated to have been
vaccinated in infancy. The following measures were
taken at the Consumption Hospital: after the removal
of the patient, the Isolation Ward in which he had
been placed, and the Common Ward which he had previously
occupied with other patients, wore closed, carefully
disinfected and cleansed. The patient's bedding was destroyed
by fire. The nurses, officers and others who had come in
contact with the patient were vaccinated on the following
day. Revaccination was advised and offered to all the
inmates, and accepted by 26 people, and no subsequent case
occurred in the hospital. The serious outbreak of small-pox
in the course of the summer, many of the cases having, in the
first instance, been removed from Salvation shelters and
lodging houses, pointed to the fact that these shelters were
the means of spreading disease.
Representations to the Local Government Hoard, urging
that body to bring in a Bill to promote legislation to place
all shelters under the provisions of the Common Lodging