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9
Scarlet Fever was the registered cause of deaths in London
in 398 instances, being the smallest number recorded from this
disease since 1891, and being at the rate of 0.09 per 1,000 of the
population living as compared with 0.21, the average rate in the
10 years immediately preceding; of these 398 deaths, 329 or
nearly 83 per cent, occurred in public institutions.
Belonging to our own district 7 deaths were certified, 5 of
which took place in the Metropolitan Asylums Board Hospitals.
This is a more favourable return than for the year 1898, when
the deaths numbered 17. The returns of sickness from the same
cause were also less, the numbers being 158 for 1899 and 197 for
1898 and 234 for 1897.
Notwithstanding this improvement in the Registrar General's
Annual Summary jnst issued, St. Luke is classed amongst the
London Sanitary Areas which during the past year yielded the
highest death-rate from Scarlet Fever, viz., 0.20 per 1,000 and
was only exceeded by Fulham with 0.25 and in Rotherhithe
with 0.27.
Diphtheria caused the deaths of 8 parishioners against 21 for
each of the two preceding years, and is in point of fact the
smallest number of deaths from this disease that it has ever been
my duty to record, and bears favourable comparison with the
adjoining Sanitary Districts.
1,964 deaths occurred in London from Diphtheria during the
year, being equal to a death-rate of 0.43 per 1,000 against 0.39
and 0.50 for the two previous years respectively ; the death-rate
for St. Luke was 0.25.
Fever.—Under this heading 5 deaths were registered as
belonging to the Parish, all being ascribed to Enteric or Typhoid
Fever. One of the cases died in the City Road District, one in
St. Bartholomew's Hospital and was removed from the Whitecross
Street District, and three in the Metropolitan Asylums
Board Hospitals, all of which belonged also to the City Road
District.
The table of infectious sickness shows a considerable increase
under the head of Fever compared with the previous year,
31 cases of Enteric and 1 of Puerperal Fever being notified.
During the year 1898 17 cases in all were certified.