View report page

5
SCARLET FEVER.
Scarlet Fever or Scarlatina caused 144 deaths in St.
Pancras in 1879. This is at the rate of 27.7 in each 1000
deaths from all causes, and is 3.5 above the average of the
three preceding years, but is 3-9 below the proportion in
every 1000 deaths caused in the whole of the Metropolis in
1879 by Scarlet Fever, as shown by the Registrar-General.
But the Registrar-General's tables show as large a number of
deaths from this disease in St. Pancras as 177, this difference
being due to the fact that in the tables accompanying this
Report only those deaths which have resulted directly from
Scarlet Fever have been classed under this heading. If the
Registrar-General's tables be taken for the purpose of comparing
the amount of Scarlet Fever in St. Pancras with that
occurring in the Metropolis as a whole, it will be found that
the number of deaths in St. Pancras bears the same proportion
to deaths from all causes as in the Metropolis as a whole.
It must, however, then be recollected that St. Pancras contains
no Fever Hospital, and that many cases from our
Parish died in the Fever Hospital in Liverpool Road, as well
as in those of the Metropolitan Asylums Board, and if these
cases were added to our other Scarlet Fever deaths, St.
Pancras would show a larger death-rate from this disease
than the Metropolis as a whole; 374 cases of Scarlet Fever
became known to the Sanitary Department during 1879, and
iu each case disinfection of the infected room was carried out,
and, when possible, the sufferer was removed to the Hospital.
Many of these cases, however, were not reported until it was
too late to prevent a considerable amount of loss of life ensuing.
Thus, in one house in the Tottenham Court Road
district, to which my attention was drawn by the Registrar,
eight children were attacked with Scarlet Fever of whom five
subsequently died. If the first patient had been removed to
the Hospital when first taken ill, I have no doubt but that
this loss of life could have been prevented, and it is instructive
to notice that although at the time of my visit a large
number of young children remained in the house who had not
had Scarlet Fever, and who were, therefore, doubtless susceptible
to it, the removal of the sick to the hospital, of the dead
to the mortuary, and the disinfection of the house, prevented
any further extension of the disease.
I cannot characterize too strongly the conduct of persons
who retain in houses inhabited by young children a single
case of infectious disease. The ignorance of the poor is often