London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
City of Westminster 1906
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]
This page requires JavaScript
Continued from previous page...
| Scarlet Fever, 1906. | St. Anne. | Great Marlborough. | Pall Mall. | Regent. | Charing Cross. | Covent Garden. | Strand. | Totals for City. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st quarter | 12 | 8 | 2 | 6 | - | 6 | 1 | 113 |
| 2nd quarter | 14 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 1 | 149 |
| 3rd quarter | 5 | 3 | — | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 106 |
| 4th quarter | 6 | 10 | — | 7 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 172 |
| Total cases | 37 | 32 | 6 | 20 | 4 | 23 | 8 | 540 |
| Deaths | 2 | — | — | — | — | 1 | — | 14 |
| Attack rate per 10,000 population | 33.9 | 46.0 | 20.2 | 21.4 | 9.5 | 27.2 | 12.6 | 31.0 |
| Mortality per cent. of cases | 5.4 | — | - | - | - | 4.3 | - | 2.5 |
Most of the cases notified were in children between 5 and 15 years
of age. The incidence of the disease falls principally upon those
districts in which there are most children at these ages.
Fourteen deaths occurred, as shown in the above Table. This works out at 2.5 per cent. of the notified cases, which is about the same as for all London.
| Scarlet Fever. | 1901. | 1902. | 1903. | 1904. | 1905. | 1906. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deaths per 100 Cases— | ||||||
| The City | 1.8 | 3.3 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 4.0 | 2.5 |
| The County | 3.2 | 3.0 | 2.8 | 2.7 | 2.8 | 2.6 |
Eighty-seven cases occurred in houses, some occupants of which
were employed in the clothing trade; in 29 instances the business was
carried on in the house by the parents of the affected children.
Forty-one cases occurred in houses, some occupants of which were
engaged in public catering, 17 being on the premises.
Five hundred and twelve of the 540 persons were removed to
hospital, and 12 were eventually reported not to be suffering from
scarlet fever.
As stated above a considerably larger number were not notified.
Five children suffered from both scarlet fever and diphtheria at
different times during the year. In several instances cases of diphtheria
were notified from the same house, at the same time as the scarlet
fever cases; some of them proved eventually to be cases of scarlet
fever.
Return Cases.—In one or two instances it would appear that patients
had been discharged from hospital before they were quite free from
infection. For example (1) V. H. was notified on the 1st January and
removed to hospital, sent home 19th April; on the 27th April he
was notified as having an infectious discharge from the ear, and was