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31
Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health.—1896.
districts from whence the patients originally came. This I did, with the result that
my suggestion was immediately acted upon.
The provisions of the Health Act as regards notification, are, I think, so far as
they go good, but they do not go far enough.
For example, no provision whatever is made for the notification of infectious
diseases originating with patients in hospitals to the Medical Officer of Health of the
district in which the particular hospital may happen to be situated. Such an omission
constitutes, in my opinion, a serious flaw in the Act.
On the other hand, again, the absurdity of the situation is accentuated when the
fact is noted that the Medical Officer of such a hospital is obliged to notify patients
who have become infected to the Medical Officer of Health for the district, often a
country one, whence the patient originally came may be weeks or months before.
By way of illustration, as matters at present stand, had the doctor chosen merely
to notify the earlier cases to the Medical Officers of the place (scattered over
various parts) from which the patients were brought to the hospital, the outbreak
might easily have reached serious dimensions. In the instance, however, of the
particular outbreak under report direct notification of the earlier cases has already
led to the prompt and thorough disinfection of two wards, together with other precautionary
measures directed towards the stamping out of a highly infectious and
dangerous malady.
The practical lesson to be learnt from the outbreak is the need of an amendment
of Sect. 55-(l) (6) of the Public Health (London) Act, 1891, making notification of
dangerous infectious disease compulsory, not only to the Medical Officer of Health of
the district from whence a hospital patient is drawn, but also to the Medical Officer of
Health of the Parish in which the hospital is situated.
This view of the case I would earnestly urge upon your Vestry in order that the
attention of the Local Government Board and of our legislators may be directed to an
omission that constitutes a standing danger to the public health.
F. J. WALDO,
Medical Officer of Health.
Vestry Hall, St. George's.
16th June; 1896.
Report of an Outbreak of Diphtheria in Cornbury Street, Old Kent Road.
In accordance with a request from your Vestry I beg to make the following report
on an outbreak of Diphtheria in that portion of your district known as Cornbury
Street, Old Kent Road. The first case was notified on the 14th of July, and the last
on the 8th of October. There were fourteen cases in all of which number live
proved fatal.
Seven were treated in the Metropolitan Asylums Board Hospitals and seven at
their own homes. With the exception of two, all those attacked were under the age
of ten years. The youngest was one year two months, the oldest forty-one, and the
average nine years two months. Seven were males and seven females.
Cornbury Street is a narrow cul de sac, 160 yards long, running at right angles to
the Old Kent Road. It consists of forty-seven two-storied houses, and is inhabited by
carmen, watermen, and others of the labouring class. Four of these houses branch off
in a kind of court. The houses may be divided according to the number of rooms into
two, three and four rooms. In two cases there are six rooms. The two-roomed houses,
three in number, consist of a single room opening from the street and connected by a