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173
11909

INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN STREETS.
A table showing the infectious diseases in the various streets of the
borough together with the number of houses is given as usual.
Its study is not without considerable interest to those who are desirous of
ascertaining the streets that are most infected.
Last year special attention was drawn to the condition of Campbell Road,
about whose state so much had appeared in the press, when it was noted that
there were only seven cases of infectious diseases in its houses, viz: —3 Scarlet
Fever, 3 Diphtheria and 1 Erysipelas, and that these occurred in seven
different houses.
It is now possible to state that only 5 cases occurred in that road in 1909,
and that these also occurred in different houses. Again, in Queensland Road,
which next to Campbell Road is the worst road in Islington, only 5 cases ot
infectious diseases were known and these occurred in four houses.
From this statement it is very apparent that nothing has been left undone
on the part of the sanitary authority to prevent an infectious disease when it
has broken out in these roads spreading to other'people living in the same
houses.
The table speaks for itself, and is also a fair guide, although not always a
correct one, as to the "return" cases of infectious disease known in the
borough, for frequently where more than one case has arisen in the same house
it has been due to infection by the patient either prior to his removal to
hospital or subsequent to his return home. In the latter case, people are often
inclined to blame the hospital authorities, who, the Medical Officer of Health
is aware, make every effort to prevent any case leaving hospital while there
is a possibility of infection being conveyed to it.
These occasional cases are the only penalties which the public have to
bear in return for the very great benefit that is received by the isolation of
persons suffering from infectious diseases.