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53
OTHER INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
Hospital Isolation.—The hospitals of the Metropolitan Asylums Board were rendered
available for the treatment of whooping cough by the Order of the Local Government Board of
August, 1912, the conditions regulating admission being the same as those for measles. Last
year 27 patients were admitted, as compared with .32 in 1912. The proportion of known cases
treated in those hospitals was 4T per cent. in 1912 and 8.5 in 1911. There were 8 deaths from
the disease in the Board's hospitals, equal to a fatality of 29.6 per cent. of the admissions,
while the corresponding rate for 1911 was 21.4. The fatalities recorded in hospitals and among
patients treated at home are given below.

There has been a striking increase in the proportion of deaths in institutions to all deaths
from this disease of recent years. In the five years 1903-7 there were 182 deaths entered as
due to whooping cough, 6 of which, or 33 per cent., occurred in institutions (principally in the
Infirmary). In the next five years 33 out of 148 deaths (22.3 per cent.) were reported from
institutions, and last year 17 out of 37 (45.9 per cent.).
OTHER INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
The Department receives information (on "Form 84") from the teachers of the public
elementary schools of cases of chickenpox, mumps, ringworm, "blight," "sore throat," &c., and
weekly returns are prepared of the cases of the first three. Most of these diseases will be
dealt with under "School Attendance," but the results of the weekly tabulation may be briefly
referred to here. There were no fatal cases.
Chickenpox.—Six hundred and eight (608) cases were included in the weekly returns last
year, as compared with 469 in 1912. The corrected total was 599 cases in 376 houses, as
compared with 459 in 282 houses in 1912, and 494 in 288 houses in 1911. The disease was
most prevalent in the second and fourth quarters, but the epidemic probably extended from the
second quarter right through to the end of the year.
Mumps.—The cases (uncorrected) numbered 223 in 1911, rose to 341 in 1912, and fell to
203 last year. There does not appear to have been any marked epidemic prevalence, but the
disease was more general during the first half of the year. It is difficult to say how many
tuberculous glands are reported as mumps.