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21
On March 19th, two children attending the same class at
Hugon Road School, both unvaccinated, were notified with
Small-pox, and on the following day I was asked to see a man
in Townmead Road who was suffering from Small-pox, and, on
examining the other members of his family, I found a girl of 14
recovering from Small-pox, who had been ill about 3 weeks, but
had not been attended by a doctor. This girl's sister, who slept
with her, attended the same class in Hugon Road School as the
two girls notified on the previous day and had, no doubt,
conveyed the infection to them. I made enquiries at Hugon
Road School respecting the children in this class and visited
those who were absent, and found two of them suffering from
modified Small-pox, the illness being in one case of so mild a
character that no doctor had been called in, while in the other
the nature of the illness had not been recognised. The classroom
attended by the children was closed for 14 days and the
children living in the same houses with the children in that class
were excluded from school during the same period, and kept
under observation. No further cases, however, arose among
the Hugon Road School children, but, in all, 11 cases resulted
from the girl in Townmead Road.
Fatality.—Of the 94 cases notified in 1902, 12 proved fatal,
while the death of a parishioner of Fulham, from Small-pox,
occurred in Dartford Asylum, so that 13 deaths of persons
belonging to Fulham were registered as due to this disease in
1902. In addition to these, as stated, two deaths ascribed to
other diseases were really due to Small-pox.
With the exception of a baby 4 weeks old, who died within
a few hours of the appearance of the rash, all the notified cases
were removed to the Metropolitan Asylum Board's Hospitals.
Five families were accommodated at the Council's Shelter,
Townmead Road, during the disinfection of their houses. All
known contacts were kept under observation during the incubation
period, so that secondary cases were recognised in an early
stage of the disease and promptly removed to hospital,