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23
INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND THE MEASURES TAKEN
TO PREVENT THEIR SPREAD.
It will be seen from Table B that 227 Notification Certificates of
Infectious Illness were received from medical practitioners, as against
354 during the preceding year
These 227 cases represent infection in 194 different houses, each
of which was subsequently disinfected. In 159 instances the disinfection
was performed by the Sanitary Authority, and in the other cases
by the householders, to the satisfaction of their medical attendant. A
visit was paid to every house, and it was ascertained that cases of
infectious illness occurred in 18 houses where there were "grave"
sanitary defects, 21 in which the sanitary defects were "slight," and
155 in which there were no such defects.
In forming these conclusions I have considered whether any
sanitary defect was of a nature which is generally held by health
officers to predispose to, or directly bring about, the particular
disease in question.
Thus apart from the measures that have been taken to prevent
the spread of infectious illness, the notification of such illness
was the means during the year of bringing about a sanitary inspection
of 194 premises, and the abatement of insanitary conditions
in 39.
Table B. 1. shows the number of cases, and of deaths, from the
Infectious Diseases notified during the years 1892-7; and Table B. 2.
the cases of Infectious Diseases notified during each month of the
year 1897. It will be noted that there was a marked reduction in
the number of cases of sickness from Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, and
Erysipelas, but a marked increase, for which it is difficult to
account, in the sickness from Typhoid Fever when the years 1896
and 1897 are compared.
The Infectious Sickness Rate of the Parish was only 6.7 to each
1,000 of the population, as against 10.5 for the preceding year.