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

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Stoke Newington 1910

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Stoke Newington, The Metropolitan Borough]

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42
The administrative treatment of this disease by the Sanitary
Authority is considerably complicated by the Diphtheria "carrier."
In such it is not only during convalescence from Diphtheria, but also
after slight attacks of sore throat or obscure cases of nasal and oral
discharges, that the bacillus may be found to be present. Moreover,
after contact with actual sufferers, a child or an adult is liable
to carry the germ on the throat without suffering from any constitutional
symptoms whatever. It appears that about half of the
Diphtheria patients are free from Diphtheria bacilli a few days after
the disappearance of the membrane, and that about three-quarters
are free by about another week subsequent to this. A month after
the disappearance of the membrane some 18 per cent retain the germ;
after 2 months, some 6 per cent.; and after 3 months, about 1 per
cent. Of those contact carriers of the germ who never suffer from
constitutional symptoms, and who may form as many as 20 per cent.
of the children in infected school class-rooms, it appears that whereas
some harbour the germ in a virulent form, in others the germ is nonvirulent.
There have been many recorded instances where the discovery
of apparently healthy carriers, and their exclusion from school,
has succeeded in eradicating the disease, while all other measures
have failed. In some epidemics many partially virulent strains of
Diphtheria have been isolated, and there is reason to believe that
non-virulent bacilli in an individual may, from some unknown cause,
acquire virulence—so it looks as if even a test for virulence would not
afford much valuable assistance from the administrative standpoint.

MEASLES AND WHOOPING COUGH.

Measles.

Year.Death-Rate for Stoke Newmgton.Rate for London generally.Rate for England and Wales.
19010.170.430.28
19020.080.510.38
19030.390.440.27
19040.130.490.36
19050.210.370.32
19060.190.400.27
19070.130.380.36
19080.190.320.23
19090.170.480.35
19100.220.410.23