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Of the 16 cases two were afterwards returned as not suffering from enteric
fever. Of the remainder five were certainly, and one probably, not contracted in
the Borough. One case was apparently contracted from the eating of infected
oysters.
CONTINUED FEVER.
One doubtful case of enteric fever was notified as continued fever and
removed to hospital, but was afterwards found to be suffering from pneumonia.
CEREBRO SPINAL FEVER.
(Epidemic Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis).
No case was notified during the year. There were, however, five deaths
attributed to this disease amongst "non-residents" who had been admitted to the
Hospital for Sick Children.
PHTHISIS OR CONSUMPTION.
The number of deaths from phthisis during the year was 108, or a death-rate
of 2.01 per 1000, or 1.76 if corrected for sex and age distribution. Of these 41
belonged to St. Giles and Bloomsbury, a death-rate of 1.44, and 67 to the Holborn
District or a death-rate of 2.64 per 1000.
Although the death-rate from phthisis is still high in the Borough there has
been a satisfactory reduction in the death-rates during the past ten years as is
shown in the table given below.
Athough Holborn up to the year 1905 had the highest corrected phthisis
death-rates of all the London Boroughs, since that year several other Boroughs
have had higher death-rates, and in 1909, Finsbury, City of London, Shoreditch,
Berniondsey and Southwark had higher death-rates, and Stepney's corrected
death-rate was the same as Holborn.
It must also be remembered that in Holborn there is a much larger proportion
of persons living in common lodging houses than in any other London Borough.
In Holborn the rate is as many as 355 beds per 10,000 of the population; whereas
in Hampstead there are no common lodging houses, and 12 Boroughs have less
than one-tenth the proportion of Holborn.
During the five years 1904-1908 the average death-rate in common lodging
houses in Holborn per 1000 beds was 20. Also during the past five years more
than 30 per cent. of the deaths from phthisis in Holborn had been residents in
common lodging houses in the Borough.