Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Poplar, Metropolitan Borough]
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105
And sections of:—
Monier Road. Douro Street.
Old Ford Road. High Street.
SMALL POX.
During the period from January 1st to June 6th, ninety-eight
cases of Small-pox occurred within the Bow East Division. The
whole of the patients were immediately removed by the Metropolitan
Asylums Board, and the premises cleansed throughout by
the disinfector. The contacts in most cases were confined within
doors, and maintained and visited day by day, for purpose of maintenance,
and to ascertain if further cases had occurred.
On January 23rd, two cases of Small-pox in the Bow West Division
were found to be employed at a large factory in the Bow East
Division. The factory premises were at once visited, and names
and addresses of the whole of the employees engaged in the same
rooms, numbering 84, taken, and the Medical Officers of Health of
the various districts in which they lived were notified. The employees,
with only one or two exceptions, were re-vaccinated, and
the work rooms disinfected.
The contacts were prevented from going to work by notification
to their employers, and were isolated within their own homes or
shelter for about 14 days, being maintained and their rent paid by
the Council. This arrangement, in the majority of the cases, worked
very satisfactorily, and was undoubtedly a strong factor in the
prevention of further dissemination of the disease, and if the system
had been applied throughout the various Boroughs affected, the
good effect must have been beyond expectation, as most of the
cases notified in this district were found not to have been contracted
within the Borough, unless by direct contact with cases
occurring within their own homes.