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20 Parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark.
Altogether 80 cases of small-pox were notified during 1893. Seventy-two cases
only appear on the list, the remaining eight patients having been treated at their own
homes.
Prom the list it appears that 49 of the patients were males and 23 females.
Also, that the addresses given were 12 times Salvation Army Shelter, Blackfriars
road, 8 times St. George's Workhouse, and 7 times various common lodging
houses.
These attacks occurred in men, with the exceptiou of three women who were
removed from a couple of common lodging houses.
During the early part of the outbreak the disease was more marked among the
floating population than in the latter months, when it was mostly confined to the
poorer settled classes. In May and June the epidemic reached its height. (Sec Chart.)
It is remarkable that of the 72 cases, 61 cases came from Ward I. Borough Road,
8 from Ward III. (Kent Road), and 3 only from Ward II. (London Road.)
It is a significant fact that the Salvation Shelter, Workhouse, and majority of
common lodging houses are situated in Ward I.
Among the sufferers in St. George's were your Assistant Disinfector and
the officer in charge of the Blackfriars Salvation Shelter, both of whom declined my
offer of re-vaccination several weeks before they were attacked.
Of the 72 cases mentioned in the list, 50 had been vaccinated, 2 had been vaccinated
during the period of incubation of small-pox, and in 5 instances the evidence
afforded by scars was inconclusive. 63 cases had not been re-vaccinated, 2 were
re-vaccinated while the Small-pox was upon them, and 7 cases—2 of which proved
ultimately to be diseases other than small-pox—had been re-vaccinated.
Of the 5 deaths, in no single case had re-vaccination been practised, 2 aged 55
and 32 years respectively, had been vaccinated in infancy, and 3 had never been
vaccinated.
The principal lessons to be gathered from the small-pox experiences of the past
year are :—(1) The supreme importance of vaccination and re-vaccination. (2) The
prevention of the spread of small-pox among the community generally, by the early
detection of the disease among the vagrant class.
Your Sanitary Authority received no official returns relating to vaccination.
After an unsuccessful appeal to the Clerk and Guardians of St. Saviour's Union,
I obtained otherwise the following Local Government Board returns for 1892 and
1893.