London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Hackney 1919
Report on the sanitary condition of the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney for the year 1919
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The attack rate for scarlet fever was 2.97 per 1,000 persons
living. The number of cases removed to hospital during the year
was 535. This is equal to 83 per cent. of the total notified.
The following table shows the distribution of scarlet fever in the respective Sub-districts of the Borough:-
| Sub-districts. | North. | Central. | South-west. | South-east. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of cases of Scarlet Fever | 183 | 148 | 157 | 156 |
| Attack-rate per 1,000 living | 3.4 | 2.7 | 2.8 | 2.8 |
It will be seen from the above that scarlet fever was most
prevalent in the North Sub-district.
The deaths from scarlet fever during 1919 numbered 8, which is
equal to a case mortality of 1.24 per cent. attacked, and a scarlet
fever death rate of 0.03 per 1,000 inhabitants. The mortality rate
for London from scarlet fever during the same year was 0.06 per
1,000 inhabitants.
Diphtheria and Membranous Croup.—There were 679 cases of
diphtheria and 4 cases of menbranous croup notified during the
year; but of these 14 cases of diphtheria were found subsequently
not to be suffering from this disease, thus the total of genuine cases of
diphtheritic disease was reduced to 669. This is an increase of 213
upon the number of genuine cases notified during 1918. The incidence
of the disease was high at the beginning of the year and fell rapidly
at the end of January, but rose somewhat above normal at the end
of February and remained so until the end of May ; the disease
was normal during the months of June, July and August, but rose
rapidly after the school holidays and remained high during the
remainder of the year. The Asylums Board were pressed for