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In addition to the above cases there were 6 cases of scarlet fever occurring
more than 4 weeks and less than 8 weeks after the return of a former case to
the same house.
In two instances cases of scarlet fever occurred shortly after the return
home from hospital of a case of diphtheria in the same family.
DIPHTHERIA.
424 St. Pancras (civil) patients were notified during 1916 as suffering
from diphtheria or membranous croup. Of these 41 were afterwards found
not to be suffering from diphtheria, 38 by Medical Superintendents of the
Metropolitan Asylums Board hospitals, and 3 by other medical practitioners.
This gives the net number of cases of diphtheria notified during the year
as 383, equal to an incidence rate of 1.75 per 1,000 population, and 1.94 per
1,000 civil population.
The number of deaths from diphtheria certified during the year was 23,
equal to a death-rate of 0.11 per 1,000 population, and 0.12 per 1,000 civil
population, and a case mortality of 6 0 per cent. of cases notified.
Other statistical facts in regard to diphtheria will be found on pages 14-15.
Of the notified cases of diphtheria 405 (or 95.5 per cent.) were removed to
hospital as follows:—
To Metropolitan Asylum Board hospitals 369
To other hospitals 36
405
Institutions.—31 cases of diphtheria were notified during 1916 from the
Guardians' Receiving Home (St. Margaret's Home), Leighton Road. These
were not all ordinary cases of the disease, a number of them being discovered
by bacteriological examination of discharges from the nose and ear, through
the vigilance of the Medical Officer of the Home. There were two outbreaks,
one, comprising 7 cases, in January, and the other, comprising 22 cases, in
June and July. The latter was associated with 4 cases of scarlet fever. The
girls and infants were most affected, but, there were also cases amongst the
boys, and in one ward-maid. There had been 7 cases in the Home in 1915,
and two cases only have since been reported in the first half of 1917.
Return Cases. — In one house a case of diphtheria occurred ten days after
the return from hospital to the same house and family of a former case of
diphtheria. Klebs-Loeffler bacilli were found in the nose of the (?) infecting
case.
Cases of diphtheria occurred following upon the return from hospital
to the same house of a case of scarlet fever in four instances, the intervals
between the return of the first case and the onset of the return case being
3, 21, 25, and 33 days respectively. In one of these cases Klebs-Loeffler
bacilli were found in the nose of the (?) infecting case, and in one other
there was a history of sores about the face and "damp nose" in the (?)
infecting case.