London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Bethnal Green 1914

Report on the sanitary condition and vital statistics during the year 1914 together with the report of the Chief Sanitary Inspector

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defects were noted in 284 instances. Thirty-one persons
were removed from single-room tenements.
DIPHTHERIA.
Deaths 28 (Decennial average, 23).
Diphtheria was notified in 394 cases, and Membranous
Croup in six. Twenty-four of the certificates were
duplicates; fourteen of the cases were treated at home,
where four of them died; 341 were removed to Hospital,
but eleven of these were found not to be suffering from
Diphtheria. Of the 330 genuine hospital cases 24 died,
making with the home deaths a total of 28, a case mortality
of 7.00 per cent., as against 11.52 amongst the
whole of the Eastern Hospital cases.
The Inspectors report that 234 of the homes of the
patients were in a satisfactory condition, but the w.c.
or apparatus connected therewith was faulty in 39 cases,
the internal drains were defective in 11 cases, and the
yard drains in 12; minor insanitary defects were noted
in 113 cases.
Twenty patients were removed from single-room
tenements, two of which were overcrowded.
144,000 units of anti-toxin were supplied free
to medical practitioners during the year, and 248
throat swabs were submitted to the Clinical Research
Association for examination. Seventy-four of these
gave positive results, and 174 negative.
Eighteen of the deaths from diphtheria were
amongst young children aged less than five years, a
mortality of 1.1 per thousand on the estimated population
of young children.