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
Stoke Newington 1909
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Stoke Newington, The Metropolitan Borough]
This page requires JavaScript
38
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 1909, together with the results of the examinations performed at the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine, London:–
| Disease. | Results. | Total. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Positive. | Negative. | ||
| Phthisis | 17 | 34 | 51 |
| Diphtheria | 8 | 48 | 56 |
| Enteric | 7 | 8 | 15 |
| Total | 32 | 90 | 122 |
The statistics of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, with reference
to the cases of Diphtheria admitted to their Hospitals, demonstrate
that, prior to the introduction of the serum or antitoxim treatment,
the average Diphtheria mortality in the Board's Hospitals was
30.4 per cent., whereas for the most recent four years, in respect of
which statistics are available, the mortality averaged about 10 per cent.
The tables furnished in the Annual Reports of the Board furnish
clear and emphatic testimony to the importance of the early administration
of the serum: During the year 1908, of 202 cases treated on the
first day of the disease only 3 per cent. died; whereas of 1,076 cases
treated on the second day more than double that number died, and of
1,182 cases treated on the third day more than three times. Of 832
cases treated on the fourth day the increase in the deaths amounted to
over four times the figure of those who were treated on the first day,
and of 1,249 treated on the fifth day the increase was five-fold.
Taking therefore the 30 per cent. case mortality before the introduction