View report page

119 [1913
FATALITY FROM THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
By "fatality" is meant the percentage proportion of deaths to attacks—
thus, if there were 100 attacks and 5 deaths the fatality would be 5 per cent.
It has been shown in the preceding pages that there was a considerable
increase in the number of cases, yet, extraordinary to relate, the fatality has
never been so low, while the actual number of deaths has been less on only
one occasion—in 1912. The fact is that the diseases were generally of a very
mild type, and consequently there were fewer deaths. Indeed, this was the
consensus of the opinion of the medical practitioners of the Borough, many
of whom frequently declared to the Medical Officer of Health that often
they had had difficulty in arriving at a correct diagnosis, especially in cases
of scarlet fever, and were at times unable to arrive at a conclusion with
respect to it until desquamation had commenced.