View report page

16
Annual Report of the London County Council, 1914.
It will be seen from diagram (J), facing page 14, that the percentage of cases of scarlet fever
admitted to the hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1914 somewhat exceeded that of any
previous year.
Dr. Millson (Southwark) remarks in connection with scarlet fever that in his opinion "the
verminous state of houses is the cause of the spread of this and similar disease." In another part of
this report (p. 57) reference is made to the possibility of relationship between -vermin prevalence and
scarlet fever.
Diphtheria.
The cases of diphtheria (including membranous croup) notified in the Administrative County of
London in 1914 (52 weeks) numbered 9,143, compared with 7,654 in 1913 (53 weeks). The number
of deaths was 706 in 1914 (52 weeks), compared with 431 in 1913 (53 weeks). It should be borne in mind
that the case- rate and case-mortality may be affected by variations in the extent of use of bacteriological
methods of diagnosis, the effect of which is to increase the number of clinically mild cases of the
diseases notified.
The diphtheria death-rates, case-rates, and case mortality, in 1914 and preceding periods, are
given in table I. and II., pages 40 and 41. The death-rate in each year since 1858 in relation to the mean
death-rate of the period 1859-1914 is shown for diphtheria and also for diphtheria and croup combined
in diagram (L). The monthly case-rate and case-mortality in each of the years 1891-1914 in relation to
the mean of the period is shown in diagram (N).
Diphtheria
cases, deaths
and dpathrates
in
London
boroughs.

Diphtheria
cases and
deaths by
age and sex
—London.
It will be seen from the foregoing table that in the period 1909-13 the diphtheria death-rate was
highest in Finsbury, Shoreditch and Poplar (017) and lowest in the City of London (0.03); in the year
1914 Woolwich (0 28) had the highest death-rate, and Kensington and Stoke Newington (0.08) the
lowest. The diphtheria death-rates in London in each of the four quarters of the year 1914 were as
follows: first quarter 0.14; second quarter 0.13; third quarter 0.12; and fourth quarter 0.23.
The following table shows the notified cases, deaths, case-rates, death-rates and fatality of
diphtheria at the several ages and for each sex in London during the year 1914. At "all ages" the
fatality was higher among males, while the incidence of attack was slightly higher among females. In
the age-groups adopted for the purposes of this table the greatest incidence of attack was upon males