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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
Islington 1899
Forty-fourth annual report on the health and sanitary condition of the Parish of St. Mary, Islington
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117
[1899
THE NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
The separate cases of the infectious diseases, notifiable under
sec. 55 of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, numbered 2,942,
as compared with 2,418 returned in the preceding year, and a
corrected average of 3,324 in the eight years, 1891-8.
The case rate was equal to 8.44 per 1,000 of the inhabitants,
which, while it exceeds that which obtained in 1898 by 1.44, is
almost identical with the mean rate which obtained since 1891.
The case rate contrasts with the rates of London and the Encircling Districts as follows:—
| The Encircling Districts. | London | 9.3 per 1,000 inhabitants. |
| St. Pancras | 8.22 „ „ | |
| Stoke Newington | 7.58 ,, ,, | |
| Hackney | 10.29 ,, ,, | |
| Hornsey | 7.64,, ,, | |
| Clerkenwell | 10.47 ,, ,, | |
| St. Luke's | 8.95 ,, ,, | |
| Shoreditch | 9.25 ,, ,, | |
| The Encircling Districts (collectively) | 9.11 ,, ,, | |
These rates are all above those experienced in the preceding
year.
Locally only Enteric Fever, Puerperal Fever and Cholera
(English) exceeded the corrected average of the preceding eight
years. The increase in the enteric fever cases is mainly explained
by the outbreak of the disease, in the second and third quarters, at
the Workhouse Schools, Hornsey Road, and that of the puerperal
fever cases by the inclusion of both peritonitis and metritis when
occurring in connection with parturition, as well as puerperal
pyaemia, puerperal septicaemia and puerperal sapræmia among the
diseases that were to be included under that heading.