London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
City of Westminster 1902
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]
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47
Government Board, with the result that they wrote to the St. Georgeper cent.s
Board of Guardians stating that if the Guardians decided to make a
payment to the Public Vaccinators of the Union in respect of each
person not residing in the Union who has been re-vaccinated at a
factory or workshop, and, after payment, apply to the Board for
sanction under the Local Authorities (Expenses) Act, 1887, the Board
will, in the circumstances, be prepared to favourably consider the
application. A vaccination station was opened in Victoria Street once a
week.
In the Strand Union the Public Vaccinator was ill and unable to do
anything, but three Deputy Vaccinators were appointed. The St.
Clement Danes hall was opened as a vaccination station every evening
for 122 days, viz., from October 29th to December 23rd, 1901, and
from January 24th to April 11th, 1902.
From the last report of the Local Government Board I find that the percentage of children (after deducting deaths) who were not vaccinated either from postponement, removal, or otherwise was as follows:—
| Union. | Average Percentage. | Percentage. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1893-97. | 1897. | 1898. | 1901.* | |
| St. George | 5.3 | 5.8 | 8.3 | 6.5 |
| Westminster | 19.9 | 11.5 | 15.6 | 15.4 |
| Strand | 15.4 | 18.6 | 23.8 | 21.5 |
| The Metropolis | 23.9 | 29.1 | 33.0 | — |
| *From information supplied by Vaccination Officers. | ||||
From 1872 to 1887 in all London the percentage of children born
unaccounted for by the Vaccination Officers averaged 7.4 per cent., but
from 1888 to 1892 this percentage rose to 14.1, and from 1893 to 1897
to 23.9, and in 1898 (the last year with which the Report deals) it had
risen to 33 per cent. The rise appears to have begun in 1886 and to
have gone steadily on each year. This has been particularly the case
in certain Metropolitan Unions, thus the ten-yearly average percentage
from 1893 to 1897 for Betlinal Green was 68.2, for Hackney 61.5, for
Mile End Old Town 571, for Shoreditch 43.9, and others in less proportion,
but some of these were much higher in the later years of the
decade and 1898 showed still further increases in these and other Unions,
formerly ranking as well vaccinated, such as Holborn, St. Pancras,
Poplar. Union and metropolitan borough areas do not coincide, but
reference to Table XVI. shows that the boroughs containing the unions
with the largest percentage of unvaccinated had also the largest
percentage of cases of small-pox. If the burden of paying the cost of