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58 Medical Officers of Health Annual Report.
The Board of Works for the Wandsmorth District.
COPY REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH FOR
PUTNEY AND ROEHAMPTON.
Putney, 10th November, 1896.
I beg to acknowledge receipt of copy of letter received by
you from the Local Government Board, with reference to the
epidemic of Diphtheria in Roehampton. I have brought this
matter before the Putney Local Committee on two occasions, the
members of which have been made fully aware of my views in
regard to the cause and progress of this outbreak.
The first case was notified to me on October 13th. During
the week following that date twelve fresh eases were notified.
During the second week eight fresh cases were notified. During
the 3rd week two fresh cases were notified, the date of the last
notification being 31st October.
The chief facts of importance in connection with the epidemic
were these. The outbreak was very sudden and disappeared very
quickly. The cases were almost entirely those of children between
the ages of 6 and 11 years. Nearly all these children attended
the National Schools at Roehampton village, and were coming into
close contact with each other daily. The type of the disease was
so extremely mild that it was with the greatest difficulty we could
impress the villagers with the necessity of rigid isolation. In
many cases they would not allow the children to be removed to
hospital, and it was found by the Inspector on his visiting the
premises that in some instances the sick children were allowed to
remain in the same room with others not affected.
There has been no death resulting from these twenty-three
cases, and all are now well.
The sanitary condition of the houses was enquired into, as