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78
Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
Of the 48 cases notified 10 were not Enteric Fever, five occurred
in the Middlesex County Asylum, leaving 33 cases in which special
enquiries were made as to the probable cause of the disease.
In four of the cases the disease was probably contracted by
eating shell-fish, in five it was contracted outside the Borough in
five the infection was contracted from previous cases, while in 19 no
history of infection could be ascertained.
The four cases which were probably contracted by eating shellfish
were all from oysters, partaken at various and untraceable
places.
Of the 10 cases which were not Enteric Fever two were fatal,
one from Appendicitis, and the other from Septicemia following
abortion.
The notification rate from this disease was the lowest on record,
while the death-rate was the same as in 1913, these two years being
the lowest yet recorded.
Cases of Mistaken Diagnosis.
In 112 cases, (57 of Scarlet Fever, 42 of Diphtheria, 10 of
Enteric Fever, one of Cerebro-spinal Fever, one of Anthrax, and
one of Puerperal Fever), information was received from the
Metropolitan Asylums Board's and other hospitals, that the patients
were not suffering from the disease notified or any other notifiable
disease, compared with 113 in 1913, 88 in 1912, and 102 in 1911.
Of 1,740 cases removed to hospital, in 112 or 6.4 per cent,
the diagnosis was incorrect, compared with 8.3 per cent, in 1913,
7.8 per cent, in 1912, and 8.5 per cent, in 1911.
There has been a slight decrease in the percentage of cases of
jnistaken diagnosis,