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65
NOTIFIABLE INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
The notifiable diseases are Small-Pox, Cholera, Diphtheria,
Membranous Croup, Erysipelas, the disease known as Scarlatina
or Scarlet Fever, and the Fevers known by any of the following
names:—Typhus, Typhoid, Enteric, Relapsing, Continued or
Puerperal. (Section 55 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891).
Chicken Pox was notifiable during part of the year 1904, from
April to November.
The total number of cases notified during the year
(excluding Chicken-pox) amounted to 588, of which 385, or 65
per cent., were removed for isolation to the Metropolitan Asylums
Board's Hospitals and other Institutions. In 36 instances,
or 9.35 per cent. of the cases removed, the Hospital authorities
returned the patient as not suffering from any infectious disease.
Deducting these from the gross total of cases, we have a corrected
total of 552 cases of notifiable infectious diseases recorded in the
Borough during the year, compared with 832 in 1903, and 1,282
in 1902, a satisfactory decrease.
Age Periods.—The persons chiefly attacked were young
children, and the largest number of notifications related to
Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria. Fifty-five per cent. of the Scarlet
Fever, and 46 per cent. of the Diphteria cases occurred
among children of or below the age of six years, and of the nonnotifiable
and yet dangerous infectious diseases (Measles and
Whooping Cough), there is evidence that a still larger percentage
of cases occurred at the same period of life.
There can be no question that the attendance at school of
children below the age of six (the period at which they are
undoubtedly most susceptible to infection) is most harmful, and
not infrequently disastrous. In previous reports I have drawn
attention to this fact, and I still urge that an appeal should
be made to the school governing authorities to raise the legal