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
Stoke Newington 1908
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Stoke Newington, The Metropolitan Borough]
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38
culty in many cases. The diagnosis outfits provided by the Council
to the medical practitioners in Stoke Newington continue to be much
appreciated. Every practitioner has been kept supplied during
the year with such an outfit, and has thus had at his disposal the
means of procuring a bacteriological diagnosis of Diphtheria, Enteric
Fever, and Consumption.
The following is a list of the applications received during 1908, together with the results of the
| Disease. | Results. | Total. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Positive. | Negative. | ||
| Phthisis | 16 | 38 | 54 |
| Diphtheria | 49 | 60 | 109 |
| Enteric | 4 | .. | 4 |
| Total | 69 | 98 | 167 |
In this disease school children are capable of carrying the germ
upon their throats, although they are not suffering from the disease.
Such children are known as "carrier" cases; and it is certain that
the infection may be dislodged from their throats in speaking or
singing, and susceptible children may take in the infection and suffer
from the disease. During the year I have had several children
notified to me who were acting as "carriers," but who showed no
clinical symptoms whatever of the disease. In my opinion, such
children cannot fairly be described as "suffering" from the disease;
and such notifications, while not in any way affecting the death-rate
from the disease, must destroy in a measure the value and significance
of infectious-sickness rates. Yet there are good reasons why such
children should be notified, for they are potentially infectious, and
the effect of notification under the Act enables the Sanitary Authority