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21
SICKNESS FROM
NOTIFIABLE INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
Table IX gives the number of cases of infectious
diseases notified during the year.
Smallpox.
On February 3rd, a woman aged fifty-six, residing in
Estcourt Road, who had been employed for some three
months as a bedmaker on the male side at the Belgian
Refugee Camp, Earl's Court, was found to be suffering
from hœmorrhagic smallpox and died the same day
in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. Her
illness commenced on January 28th, and her last attendance
at Earl's Court was on the morning of January
29th. Living at her home in Estcourt Road, were her
husband, a married daughter, her son and his wife, and
their five children The four younger children were
unvaccinated, the eldest child and the four adults had
been vaccinated in infancy. Vaccination was strongly
urged, but was obstinately declined. The contacts were
kept under observation, and the four adults and two of
the children were removed to hospital as soon as they
showed any signs of the disease, where the husband of
the first patient and one of the children died. When her
husband was removed to hospital with smallpox on
February 13th, the mother allowed all her children to
be vaccinated, and was also vaccinated herself. This
was, of course, of no avail in the case of those who were
already infected, but her baby at the breast who accompanied
her to the hospital to which she was removed on
February 15th did not contract the disease.
It should also be noted that as the illness of the child
who died did not commence until February 14th, it is
most probable that if she had been vaccinated on
February 3rd, when the nature of the grandmother's
illness was discovered, she would have escaped the
disease, but even if that had not been the case, the
disease would most certainly have been so modified that
she would have recovered.