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

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Fulham 1924

Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1924

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38
we had one alarm which fortunately did not result in
any cases. This particular outbreak occurred in
August, and although the person affected lived in Fulham
while she was actually suffering from the disease, she
moved into the Borough of Chelsea before calling in a
doctor, and the notification was therefore sent to the
Chelsea Council. Under the circumstances it was, of
course, incumbent upon us to take all the necessary
steps as if the case had been notified in Fulham. The
infection in the case of the patient was probably
acquired while she was on holiday in Brighton. All
the usual steps were taken to prevent the spread of the
disease and vaccination was offered to all the contacts,
although several of them refused it. Owing to the fact
that it was not until five days after the rash appeared
that the correct diagnosis was arrived at, we were
extremely fortunate in escaping without further cases,
particularly as during the active stage of the disease
the patient moved from Fulham to Chelsea, walking
through the street and going by 'bus.
Measles.—There were 1,692 cases of measles notified
during the year 1924, as against 1,951 in 1923 and
2,438 in 1922. These notifications in 1924 constitute
the latter half of an epidemic, the peak of which was
reached just about the new year. The number of
notifications received during the first week in Januarywas
153 and the number remained about 100 a week
until the end of February, after which there was a
steady decline through March and April. During May
the numbers remained stationary again at about 25
notifications per week. There was again a fall in June,
July and August, and in September the average number
of notifications was only 2 per week, which average
continued to the end of the year, there being, however,
seven weeks during October, November and December
when no cases were notified. The epidemic accounted
for the lives of 29 children in 1924 as compared with
23 deaths during the previous year. It would seem,
therefore, that this latter part of the epidemic was, on
the average, more fatal than the previous months, but
I think one should take into consideration the fact that
the weather during the early months of the year is