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38
CHICK EN-POX (Varicella)
On March 29th, 1904, the London County Council made the
following Order
"The London County Council do hereby Resolve and Order
that Section 55 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1801, with
respect to the notification of infectious disease shall apply in the
Administrative County of London, for a period of four calendar
months, to the disease known as Chicken-Pox ; and the Council
do hereby declare that the case is one of emergency owing to
(he recent increase in the number of cases of Small-pox in Loudon
and the fact that the failure in certain cases to distinguish
between Chicken-pox and Small-pox has led and is likely to lead
to the spread of the latter disease."
The order was advertised on 31st March, 1904, and in accordance
with the Statute, came into operation at the expiration of one week
from that date. Subsequently the order was extended for three
additional months (expiring on November 7th, 1904). We received
197 notifications. In 1905 notification was not in force, and we
heard of cases of chicken-pox only through the schools; but they
amounted to 185, nearly as many as through notification by medical
practitioners.
DIPHTHERIA.
There have been 126 notifications of Diphtheria (including
Membranous Croup) received during the year, as compared with
125 in 1904, 119 in 1903, 216 in 1902 and 289 in 1901. This
result shows a marked and satisfactory decline on 1901.
During the year til bacteriological examinations were made of
doubtful cases, yielding 12 positive and 49 negative results.
The age incidence of Diphtheria and its mortality for 1905 was
as follows:—