View report page

16
diphtheria.
The other two patients were residents of the Borough, one a printer (m. æt. 35) working
in the City and the other a cook (m. net. 23) employed in the Borough. The former patient
had been journeying to and from Dorking and might have come into contact with cases in
South-East London where small-pox was then prevalent. No information could be obtained
of the source of infection in the other case. All four patients had been vaccinated in infancy
only. The measures adopted with regard to each case were the same as described in
previous reports. No spread of infection occurred from anv of the cases.
Vaccination.—The appended table is based on information kindly supplied by the
Vaccination Officer. The proportion of children escaping vaccination from various causes
is satisfactorily low. The returns for the first half of 1903 cannot be regarded as complete.

* Including "gone away," "false addresses," apprisals to other districts, &c. † Provisional return only.

The reported cases of diphtheria, which numbered 343 in 1901, declined to 211 in
1902, and to 145 last year, giving a morbidity rate of 0'98 per 1,000 persons of all ages as
compared with rates of 1.41 and 2.37 in the two preceding years. The Metropolitan rate last
year (1.67, as compared with 2.30 in 1902, and 2.08 in 1901) was 0.69 above the local rate.
The decennial average was 318 cases and last year's total was 55 per cent. below that
number, while the recorded cases in the Metropolis (7,749) were only 40 per cent. below
the average (12,810). The records for last year are contrasted with the various averages
below—