London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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City of Westminster 1906

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]

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46
the records of 630 cases notified during the last five years, and of
the houses in which the cases occurred. These only record deaths and
notifiable diseases, and there may, in addition, have been many cases
of illness in the houses which did not prove fatal, but which may
have had some relation to the erysipelas attack, or have been induced
by the presence of the same conditions favourable to the production of
erysipelas; such cases would not necessarily come to my knowledge.
It appears that in twenty-nine houses in which cases had been
notified, thirty-one cases of the same complaint were subsequently
notified; seventeen of these were attacks in different persons, twelve
were second attacks, and two third attacks in the same person. The
following are instances of more than one attack occurring in the same
house:—
(1) 1st case 18th June, 1902; 2nd case on same floor 1st
December, 1902.
(2) 1st case 5th February, 1904; 2nd case 16th December, 1904.
(3) 1st case 12th October, 1904; 2nd case in same rooms, 14th
November, 1905.
The subsequent attacks all occurred in different persons.
Puerperal fever occurred in two houses in which there had
been erysipelas. In one case the child had erysipelas on the 16th
February, and the mother died of puerperal fever on the 19th February;
in the second a case of erysipelas occurred on the 27th January, and a
woman died of puerperal fever on the 2nd March of the same year.
The reverse occurred in one instance, puerperal fever in January,
erysipelas in the following May.
In 1906, nine women had puerperal fever, in no instance had there
been any erysipelas in the house; five infants died from erysipelas,
but in no instance was the mother infected therefrom.
In 39 houses scarlet fever cases occurred.
In 15 houses diphtheria cases occurred.
In 10 houses enteric fever cases occurred.
In 12 houses chicken pox cases occurred, and
In 1 house small pox (2 cases) occurred.
Deaths occurred in the erysipelas houses in the five years as
follows:— In two houses deaths from other septic diseases, in fourteen
pneumonia, in eight measles, in four whooping cough, in four diarrhoea,
and in one rheumatic fever. There is thus not much evidence of
relationship between these complaints and erysipelas.
Occupation.—Particulars as to the occupations, where stated, have
been taken out, and the percentage of the total cases (in persons above
10), occurring in each group is given with the percentage of people
employed in that occupation. From this table it does not appear that