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Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
74
Of the 10 cases which were not Enteric Fever two were fatal,
one from Tubercular Meningitis, and the other from Acute Septic
Endocarditis.
Of the cases infected by previous cases, two occurred in Putney
infected by a primary case which had been caused by oysters taken
in Paris ; one in Clapham infected by a previous case notified in
December, 1911 ; the other four in Clapham were infected by a case
which had not been diagnosed for nearly six weeks, and which had
been probaDly caused by eating watercress, and another one in
Clapham was infected by a case in which the cause of infection was
not ascertained.
Another group of four cases occurred in Tooting which had
been infected by a previous case, but as the patient had only a few
days before the first symptoms appeared, come to reside in this
Borough, the origin of the first case could not be definitely ascertained.
Cases of Mistaken Diagnosis.
In 88 cases (36 of Scarlet Fever, 41 of Diphtheria, nine of
Enteric Fever, one of Cerebro-Spinal Fever, and one of Polio-Myelitis)
information was received from the Metropolitan Asylums Board's
and other hospitals, that the patients were not suffering fiom the
disease notified or any other notifiable disease, compared with 102 in
1911, 107 in 1910, and 112 in 1909.
Of the 1,118 cases removed to hospital, in 88 or 7.8 per cent,
the diagnosis was incorrect, compared with 8.5 per cent, in 1911, 12.6
per cent, in 1910, and 9.5 per cent, in 1909.
There has been a slight decrease in the percentage of cases of
mistaken diagnosis.