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66
Secondly, the full value of the personal instructions indicated above
cannot be realised unless vigorous efforts are made to prevent the accumulation
in or in the vicinity of the house of decomposing animal and vegetable matter.
It is not necessary to do more than mention the importance of efficient
scavenging, of frequent and, if practicable, daily removal of house and stable
refuse, of domestic cleanliness, and of keeping all food properly protected.
The Council may consider it advisable during the next few weeks to divert the
sanitary inspectors from less urgent work, and to instruct them to make
rapid visits with a view to securing efficient sanitation, especially in and
about the houses of the working classes.
Thirdly, it is important that the Council should promptly ascertain in
which parts of their district diarrhoea is especially prevalent, and should devote
close attention to street and court scavenging and to the removal of stable
and domestic refuse in these areas. Without waiting for the weekly health
returns, efforts should be made to obtain information of cases of diarrhoea
from health visitors and others who make domestic visits ; and to impress
upon parents the importance of immediate treatment of infantile diarrhoea.
Apart from the medical notification of cases of epidemic diarrhoea in children,
the visits of health visitors can be utilised for impressing upon parents the
seriousness of diarrhoea amongst young children and the desirability of
information being given to the Medical Officer of Health should a case of
diarrhoea occur.
The Board will be glad if the Medical Officer of Health, in his annual
report dealing with the current year, will set out the course of action adopted
in the district to prevent diarrhoea and child mortality generally, in the
special circumstances of the present year.
The suggestions contained in the Board's memorandum so
far as the Borough of Battersea is concerned were in the main
already in operation. The services of one of the male sanitary
inspectors were entirely set aside while the epidemic lasted to
assist the female inspectors and health visitors, in addition to the
general instruction to the other male inspectors to pay special
attention to the streets and premises in their respective districts
where summer diarrhoea was prevalent, with the object of promptly
removing all insanitary conditions which might be found to exist.
Yards, stables, premises where food was stored, &c., received
frequent and systematic inspection, and generally speaking all
effective steps that could be, were taken to deal with the outbreak.
Tuberculosis.
During 1911, 289 deaths from tuberculosis were registered as
belonging to the Borough of Battersea. Of this number, 217 (i.e.
75 per cent.) were due to phthisis (tuberculosis of the lungs), 34 to
tubercular meningitis, 19 to general tuberculosis, 12 to tubercular
disease of the intestines and 7 to other forms of the disease. In
1910, the total number of deaths from tuberculosis was 252 and in
1909, 289.
The following table shows the death-rate from phthisis and
other tubercular diseases per 100,000 persons in each year since
1901.