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37
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
Further inquiry elicited the fact that the mother had
had one or two spots, but had not been confined to her
bed as she was not feeling ill.
The only one who has escaped was the infant of one
year, who had been vaccinated a few months before.
It is most fortunate that the occupants of the rooms
downstairs were protected by vaccination as otherwise
they would have undoubtedly taken the disease.
I have no doubt, in reviewing the whole history, that
the case originally notified as Small-pox was really Smallpox
and not Chicken-pox, and that Miss Cameron's diagnosis
was the correct one. It is difficult to understand how
this first case was infected as no cases of Small-pox have
been notified to me from that neighbourhood since July,
1902.
The W. family had only recently removed to this
Borough, having previously resided in Lambeth.
Of the 24 cases of Small-pox, in 14 the patients had been
vaccinated in infancy only, in nine they were unvaccinated, and
in the one that occurred in the Prison no information as to the
condition of the patient with respect to vaccination was obtained.
Of the 14 who had been vaccinated in infancy, five were from
25 to 30 years of age; three, 30 to 35; one, 35 to 40; and five
over 40 years of age. Of the nine unvaccinated, three were from
one to five years, four from five to ten, and two from ten to 15
years of age.
No case occurred in a person under 20 who had been vaccinated
in infancy.
14 of the cases were primary or first cases in the house, and
with the exception of one, all were infected in some other part of
London. The one exception was the case in Garratt Lane,
Tooting, which was infected by the first case in Letchworth
Street.
Ten cases were subsequent to other cases, four of these being
infected by unrecognised cases in the house, the remaining six
refused re-vaccination when the primary case occurred.