Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1899
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many years, side by side with the building boom, while tending to
lower the general death-rate has not been sufficient to counteract the
evils attending rapidly-built houses, more rapidly inhabited—evils
such as dampness of dwelling and fouling of the soil, which render
the rising generation more prone to succumb to attacks of zymotic
disease than, under happier circumstances, they would be. It is thus
that the housing problem is looked upon by the Council as one of the
most essential to be solved as a means both directly and indirectly
of effecting improvement in this respect; directly by levelling up and
providing healthy dwellings and indirectly by training the people to
value them.
The circumstances associated with the recent prevalence
of Diphtheria in West Ham.
Having dealt with the diptheria prevalence during the year 1898
in my last annual report, it will be convenient to especially consider
in this report the incidence and mortality of that disease during the
first three quarters of the current year.
As a means of comparison I append below the weekly notifications
of diphtheria during the past 3¾ years:—
Table III.
1896. | 1897. | 1898. | ¾ of 1899. | |
---|---|---|---|---|
14 | 11 | 9 | 41 | |
11 | 15 | 6 | 22 | |
17 | 12 | 8 | 35 | |
38 | 8 | 11 | 47 | |
17 | 8 | 13 | 31 | |
10 | 8 | 20 | 28 | |
14 | 11 | 12 | 27 | |
16 | 16 | 19 | 31 | |
13 | 7 | 25 | 20 | |
8 | 15 | 16 | 17 | |
18 | 7 | 9 | 38 | |
8 | 5 | 18 | 6 | |
8 | 18 | 16 | 21 | |
Total for 1st quarter | — 192 | — 141 | — 182 | — 364 |
Carried forward | 192 | 141 | 182 | 364 |