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25
SCARLET FEVER.
The 174 cases of Scarlet Fever occurred in houses in 14 of
which there were grave insanitary conditions: in 14 the insanitary
conditions were slight, and in the remaining houses there was an
absence of such conditions.
School attendance was ascribed as the origin of the infection in
17 cases ; and in two cases there were strong reasons for believing
that the infection was communicated by a patient recently dismissed
from a fever hospital. The infection was imported into the Borough
in 7 instances, and in 15 instances the infection was directly contracted
from a preceding case.
Scarlet Fever was very prevalent during the later months of
the year. The report of the medical officer of the London County
Council issued in November is of great interest as proving how the
disease can be spread by milk. Scarlet Fever was shown to have
existed on a certain farm whence milk was supplied to the districts
where Scarlet Fever had broken out. An important point brought out
in the report was that the middleman has no records which would
enable him to give information as to how the milk from his several
farms had been distributed among the local vendors. Some better
machinery for detecting and excluding infective milk from London is
obviously needed, and this, it may be hoped, will at no distant date be
provided.
ERYSIPELAS.
The 39 cases of this disease represented infection in 34 different
premises. In two of these, grave insanitary conditions existed, and
in 3 the insanitary conditions were of a slight nature.
SUMMER DIARRHœA.
At the commencement of the summer, some 2,000 handbills on
Summer Diarrhoea and Infant Feeding were distributed at the houses
of the poorer parts of the Borough: and in future it is proposed to
leave a precautionary handbill at each house where a child had been
born during the previous eighteen months. The very low death-rate
from Diarrhoea in the Borough for 1901 seems to indicate that some
good resulted from the action taken, and is an encouragement to
continue a crusade against this essentially preventible disease.