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68
Smallpox.
Two hundred and sixty-three cases of Smallpox
occurred in the Borough during the year, while many
cases occurred in other London Boroughs with contacts
in Bethnal Green.
The last serious outbreak of Smallpox in the
Borough took place in 1904, when 118 cases were
notified. Since then, sporadic cases have occurred, as
follows:—
1905 3 1915 1 1922 1
1906 6 1918 2 1923 1
1911 3 1919 1 1925 11
1928 4
The present outbreak of Smallpox began in March,
1929, and showed no signs of abating at the end of the
year when the number of cases notified had reached 263.
With the exception of one case, all the patients made
an uneventful recovery. The exception was a boy,
age 13 years, unvaccinated, who had a history of vesical
fistula. His death was certified as Septicaemia, Confluent
Smallpox and Vesical Fistula.
The graph on the next page shews the course of the
outbreak throughout the year. Two major peaks
occurred, the first in the week ending May 4th when
24 cases were notified, and the second in the week ending
December 14th when there were 23 cases. These
two peaks and the variations in the curve follow fairly
constantly the curve for London as a whole. This, of
course, is to be expected since Bethnal Green contributed
by an appreciable extent to the figures for London.
An analysis has been made in tabular form on
page 71 shewing the number of cases occurring in age
groups and whether they have been vaccinated. The
table is self-explanatory, but the outstanding feature
is that where vaccination has been performed in infancy
no case occurred under the age of 15 years. On the
other hand, 142 cases occurred under 15 years of age