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37
Puerperal Fever.
During 1909, in the Borough of Battersea, fourteen cases of
puerperal fever were notified, and seven deaths were registered,
giving a case-mortality of 50 per cent. The case-rate was .07, or
.02 above the mean case-rate for the preceding ten years. The
death-rate was .03 per 1,000, and was equal to the decennial
average. The death-rate for London was 0.3. Five deaths occurred
in North-West Battersea and one each in East and SouthWest
Battersea.
In 1908, seven cases of puerperal fever were notified, and
five deaths were registered, giving a case-mortality of 71.4 per
cent, and a death-rate of .02 per 1,000.
Puerperal fever is a preventable disease, and is caused by
want of care by those in attendance on the lying-in woman. During
1909, 4,450 births were registered in or belonging to Battersea.
The mortality statistics for this disease cannot, therefore,
be considered unsatisfactory. Enquiries were made in every case
notified, and the midwives in attendance visited at their homes.
Arrangements were at once made for their personal attendance
at the Reception Shelter in Sheepcote Lane, where each of them
had a sanitary bath and her clothing, instruments, etc., sterilised
by steam at the disinfecting station adjoining. The cases are at
once reported to the London County Council, who are the Local
Supervising Authority under the Midwives Act, 1902. The duty
of disinfection, however, devolves on the Borough Council as the
Local Sanitary Authority.
Seven nurses and midwives who had been in attendance on
puerperal fever cases during the year attended at the Reception
Shelter for purposes of disinfection.
Erysipelas.
During 1909, in the Borough of Battersea, 156 cases of
erysipelas were notified, and four deaths were registered, as compared
with 151 cases and five deaths in 1908. The case-mortality
was 2.56 per cent., as compared with 3.3 per cent, in 1908, and
2.89 per cent, in 1907. The case-rate was .83, and the death-rate
.02, or .11 and .04 below the decennial average respectively.
Thirty-three cases were removed to hospital, the majority
going to Union Infirmaries, and the remainder to general hospitals.
In London during 1909, 4192 cases of erysipelas were notified,
and 176 deaths registered from the disease, giving a case-mortality
of 4.2 per cent.