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

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Fulham 1894

Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year ending December 31st, 1894

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by the Medical Superintendent to be re-vaccinated, had
persistently refused. It is clear that the outbreak of Smallpox
in the neighbourhood of the Greyhound Road originated with
this man. On the ground floor of the same house were a
brother and sister, aged 21 and 31, who kept a small sweetstuff
shop, and who were both suffering from Smallpox, the
girl who was actually attending to the shop having had the
disease for about a fortnight and the man for about a week,
both patients being under the care of a medical practitioner.
The basement floor of the house was occupied by a
man, aged 55, and his wife ; the man was suffering from
Smallpox, having been attacked about four days previously,
and his wife had just recovered from the same disease,
and in her case also the nature of the disease had been
mistaken by a medical practitioner. The three patients
who were actually suffering from the disease were at once
removed to the Hospital Ship, the shop was closed, and
the whole house and its contents were disinfected. With
a focus of infection like this, which had existed for upwards
of four weeks in a poor and somewhat squalid neighbourhood,
like that of Greyhound Road, a severe outbreak of Smallpox
might have been anticipated ; as it was, there were
only eleven persons who were apparently infected, directly
or indirectly, by the cases at 16, Greyhound Road, viz. :
the barmaid at the Greyhound Hotel; 2 cases at 44,
Ancill Street ; a brother and sister of the occupiers of the
shop at 16, Greyhound Road, living in Bayonne Road ,
4 cases in Tasso Road, and here again the first cases were
for some time regarded as Chicken Pox ; a child at 33, Greyhound
Road, and a man living in Hannell Road. Judging
from the subsequent epidemic in Marylebone, which originated
under somewhat similar conditions, Fulham must be considered
to have had a very fortunate escape. In the last
annual report, in commenting on some cases which had been
notified as Smallpox, but subsequently proved not to be of
that nature, the following remarks, a repetition of which is
justified by the history of the foregoing cases, were made : —
"The difficulty of diagnosing many cases of Smallpox is well
known and it must be remembered that as London was
practically free from Smallpox during the six years prior to
1892, and therefore many practitioners have never had the