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The increase in enteric fever was remarkable for its small extent.
Considering how, in times past, enteric fever has been the constant
accompaniment of war, and seeing how little time it takes to travel
even from distant parts, the absence of any serious prevalence bears
witness to the efficiency of the means of obviating infection which
are taken in the treatment of our soldiers, and to the care which is
taken lest they should be a source of danger to the civilians at home.
In all there were six deaths from this disease, one being under the
age of 25, and occurring at widely separated places and intervals of
time. The notifications also exceeded those of last year by one.
They were received from all the districts of the Borough, North
Camberwell being responsible for nearly half the number of cases.
In my report for last year I mentioned a certain family in
North Peckham in which there occurred a series of cases. This
culminated in the early days of 1915 in the death of the father
of the family from this disease. The mother, in 1914, had suffered
from an attack of what was then supposed to be influenza. There
seemed a chance that this really might have been a case of unrecognised
enteric, and very careful investigations were made to see
whether she had acted as a so-called "carrier,"i.e., a person apparently
quite well but who is capable of infecting others. All enquiries,
however, turned out to be negative. Two cases occurred in institutions
in the Borough, the first at the Infirmary, and the second at
one of the Lunatic Asylums.
Some of the patients had been eating watercress, and others
shellfish, but there was no series of cases which would warrant a
statement that either of these causes had anything to do with the
attack. In two instances patients were returned from the Asylums
Board Hospitals as not being considered to be suffering from enteric
fever.
The diphtheria notifications showed a decrease of 55, most
marked in the South Peckham District. The deaths, as usual, were
chiefly between the ages of 2 and 15, in this way following the ageperiod
of the larger number of notifications, with which they were
also in general accord in respect of a diminished prevalence.
The distribution of the disease was such as to exclude the likelihood
of any one school being the centre of an outbreak, for the
notifications were pretty fairly distributed all over the Borough.
The method of ordinarily relying on the bacteriological condition of
the throat as an index of the freedom or otherwise from infection
has been exemplified in the number of children who have attended
the Town Hall for the purpose of a swab being taken from their
throats for bacteriological examination.
The deaths from measles were 84 in number, and were all of
persons under the age of 25, the heaviest incidence being between
1 and 5 years. The increase over last year amounted to 21. The
Order requiring the notification of this disease not having come into
force until January Ist, 1916, any remarks on its effect will properly
take their place in the report for that year.
Up to that date no disinfection was carried out, and we only