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57
Number of Cases and Contacts.
In the Borough of Holborn the Public Health Department has during 1929
been called upon to deal with 55 cases of which 43 were residents and 12 were
non-resident workers in the Borough. Twenty-four of the residents were notified
by the Medical Officer of Health, but practically all the others were seen by him
in consultation with medical practitioners.
The forty-three Holborn cases occurred in 26 homes of which 22 were houses
let in lodgings, in contact with these were 674 persons in the home and 635 at their
places of work in Holborn. The twelve non-resident cases occurred at 11 places of
work in Holborn, in contact with these there were 968 persons.
Cases in Houses Let in Lodgings.
In Holborn a large part of the inhabitants live in houses let in lodgings with
sanitary accommodation and water supply in common. The intermingling of the
people living in such houses is such that all those occupying these large houses
have to be dealt with as contacts. The result is that a case of smallpox in a
resident in Holborn usually carries with it more dangers of spread than in many
other areas and vigilance is imperative.
The most striking of the cases occurring in such houses occurred in a family
consisting of father and mother and four young children, ages 8, 6, 4½ and 1 2/12
years, all of whom were in turn attacked. The father was a house painter in and
out of work, and had been in receipt of poor law relief. None of the family had
been vaccinated except possibly the mother, who was said to have been done in
infancy 32 years previously. The family were living in one room under unsatisfactory
conditions. The mother and a boy of 6 years were found to be attacked
and duly removed to hospital, the rest of the family going to the Council's Shelter
for the night during the disinfection of their room. The following day another
child in the same family was found to be attacked. We hoped that the relatives
would lend a hand to the distressed father who had the almost hopeless task of
looking after the two remaining children, one of whom was a baby of 14 months.
He, however, was given very slight, if any, help by his neighbours, certainly none
from relations who were living close by, not even by his sister-in-law. We kept
in close touch with the home, and the next day, finding; him distracted, communicated
with the Relieving Officer (Mr. Reed); he promptly came along to the house,
and at once without any demur arranged for the two little; children to be admitted
to the Holborn and Finsbury Hospital, where they too subsequently developed the
disease. A few days later, six days after the removal of the mother, the father was
also attacked and was removed to the South Wharf Hospital, Rotherhithe.
Tailor Outworkers.
Smallpox occurred in the workplace of a tailor "outworker," the patient
being a daughter employed in the workroom. At the place of work the others
employed included his wife, another daughter, one son and two older women living
in another Metropolitan Borough. The Factory and Workshop Act prohibits work
being carried on in such infected premises and the employers on representation
being made to them carried out the only course possible and withheld work for a
period of three weeks. The family, although undoubtedly in poor circumstances,