London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Finsbury 1905
Report on the public health of Finsbury 1905 including annual report on factories and workshops
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43
The distribution of the disease in Finsbury in 1905 has been
fairly uniform, although there has been one marked group.
The incidence of Scarlet Fever, since the Borough's formation, is shown in the following table:—
| No. of Cases per 10,000 of population. | No. of Deathsper 10,000 of populat on. | Case-mortality. No. of Deaths per 100 eases notified. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1901 | 48.1 | 1.8 | 3.8 | |
| 1902 | 37.9 | 1.5 | 3.9 | |
| 1903 | 28.1 | 1.2 | 4.2 | |
| 1904 | 32.6 | 1.7 | 5.2 | |
| 1905 | 46.4 | 2.1 | 4.6 | |
and its seasonal incidence is shown as follows:—
| Months | Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May | June | July | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov. | Dec. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of Cases. | 17 | 19 | 32 | 14 | 27 | 30 | 39 | 46 | 79 | 60 | 44 | 49 |
| Totals | 68 | 71 | 164 | 153 | ||||||||
Direct personal infection has been traceable to previous cases of
Scarlet Fever in the same family in 69 instances, in schools in 29
instances, and in the same house or buildings in 167 cases. That
is, that out of the total of 456 it has been possible in 265 cases (or
58 per cent.) to trace direct personal infection. Some 40 cases of
Scarlet Fever occurred in Guinness' Buildings in Lever Street,
between June and August, and there were another score of cases in
the vicinity also set up as part of the same outbreak. Nearly all
these cases were of children under 10 years of age and half of them
were under five years. There was another outbreak of smaller
proportions in the Northampton Buildings. Six centres of infection
in the Borough originated in children returning from country
holidays bringing infection back with them.