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55
Your Medical Officer of Health, in consultation with Medical
Practitioners, saw a number of patients with a rash or symptoms
suggesting the possibility of this disease, but, fortunately, these
patients were found to be suffering from maladies other than
small-pox.
Vaccination.
No necessity arose for the Medical Officer of Health to carry
out any vaccination under the Public Health (Small-pox Prevention)
Regulations.
Diphtheria.
1,063 notifications of diphtheria were received during the year.
An outbreak of diphtheria, which occurred in an Institution
under the care of the Camberwell Board of Guardians at the end
of 1925, to which I referred in my last Annual Report, was
responsible for the increase in the number of notifications received
during that year, and by the continuance of the outbreak into the
early weeks of 1926, together with a small crop of cases in an area
in the northern part of the Borough, the number of cases reported
during the year under review was 129 in excess of the 1925 figure
and 232 more than the 1924 total.
Of the 215 children notified between the ages of 3 and 5,
97 were attending school. 1,045 were admitted to hospitals of the
Metropolitan Asylums Board. 58 cases were returned as not
suffering from this disease. The deaths numbered 54. There
were 98 secondary cases notified; these do not include hospital
cases. A secondary case is one occurring in the same household
as the primary case. Return cases numbered 11. A return case
is defined as one which occurs within 28 days after the release of
the original case from isolation.

To avoid the probability of return cases occurring, the women
Inspectors visit the homes of the patients discharged from hospital
and strongly advise, where possible, that the patient should have
a separate bedroom for a few days. Warning is also given that
should any discharge of the nose or ears occur, a doctor's advice
and treatment should immediately be obtained.