London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Paddington 1913

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Paddington, Metropolitan Borough of]

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40
ENTERIC FEVER.
Of the 484 persons notified to have scarlct fever during the year, 464 (including 22 of the 24
cases of erroneous diagnosis) were removed to hospital, equivalent to 95.9 per cent. of the total
notifications, as compared with 922 per cent. in 1912 and an average of 95"2 per cent. during
the five years 1908-12. All the reported cases were removed from Lancaster Gate, West,
and Hyde Park Wards, the smallest proportion of cases removed (91.4 per cent.) being
recorded in Westbourne Ward. Further information on this subject can be obtained from
Tables 28 and 29.
From about October 18th to December 15th there was some difficulty in securing hospital
accommodation. Altogether some 50 cases were not removed on the day of first application to
the Board. The maximum delay was not, however, more than 48 hours, and in the majority of
instances less than 24.
The deaths among those notified ill with scarlet fever numbered 8, but in one case
(in Queen's Park Ward) scarlet fever was intercurrent with measles, and the death has been
entered under measles. In another case (in Maida Vale Ward), the death took place during
the past year, but the attack was reported in the previous. The number of deaths on which the
rates in Tables 29 and 30 are based was 7. The fatality during the year (the fatal case
belonging to Maida Vale Ward being included) was 1.5 per cent., the same as in 1912, and 0.5
below the average (2.0) for the years 1908-12. The mortality for the whole Borough was 0 04
per 1,000 persons of all ages, double the rate for the previous year, but 50 per cent. below the
quinquennial average (0.06). In St. Marylebone the mortality last year was 0.08 per 1,000 (see
Table 24), that being the highest rate for the year in all the districts included in the table. The
lowest rate (0.01) was recorded in Kensington. In St. Marylebone and Hampstead the rates
recorded during the past year were above their respective averages, in all the others, below.
The changes in the mortality rates observed in the individual wards are shown in Table 30.
ENTERIC FEVER*
Last year 25† persons were reported to be ill with enteric fever, as compared with 15 in
1912. The morbidity rate (0.17 per 1,000) was 0.07 in excess of the figure for 1912, but 0.04 less
than the average for 1908-12. (See Table 17.) The local rate recorded last year was equal to
that of the County and that recorded in Hampstead, but was exceeded by the rate (0.18)
recorded in Westminster. (Table 18.) The lowest rate recorded in the circumjacent districts
during the year was 0.10 (Willesden). In all the districts last year's rates were below the
respective averages. In the areas outside the Metropolis (Table 19) last year's rate (0.22) was
little more than half that recorded in 1911. The Ward distribution of notified cases is shown
in Table 20, the numbers for the past year (in each quarter) being contrasted with the averages
for the five years 1908-12 in Table 21. In Westbourne Ward only did the cases reported in
1913 (6) exceed the quinquennial average (2). The morbidity rates observed in the Wards are
set out below.

Enteric Fever : Morbidity. Per 1,000 persons.

Queen's Park.Harrow Road.Maida Vale.Westbourne.Church.Lancaster Gate,Hyde Park.
West.East.
19130.120.110.030.240.310.100.120.23
19120.060.070.090.130.120.220.120.08
1908-120.160190.260.090.310.240.200.29

In 1912 no errors of diagnosis were discovered among the notified cases of this disease, that
being the first occasion since 1902 of freedom from errors. Last year 6 of the 25 notified cases
'Otherwise called Typhoid Fever. Cases reported as Continued Fever are included in the statistics of Enteric
Fever.
† A boy, aged 6, was notified at Eastbourne as ill with the disease five days after leaving his home in
Paddington. His sister had previously passed through an illness thought to be of the nature of a B. colt infection.