London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

View report page

St Pancras 1922

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Pancras, Metropolitan Borough]

This page requires JavaScript

40
Treatment of Tuberculosis in Sanatoria and Hospitals.

The St. Pancras cases dealt with by the London County Council scheme for institutional treatment are shown in the following figures :—

1922.No. of Applica-cations for institutional treatment.No. of these Applicants who were admitted.
Ex-service men7168
Others187172
Total258240

These figures may be compared with the following :—
No. of cases notified on Form C in 1922 as having been admitted to sanatoria 260*
„ „ „ „ „ „ Poor Law Institutions 206
SMALLPOX.
One fatal case of smallpox occurred in St. Pancras in 1922, and there were no further
cases in the borough.
The patient was an unmarried man of 30 who lived with his mother and her family in
two basement rooms at 110, Stanhope Street. The illness began on the night of 22nd July.
On the 23rd the patient was delirious and a scarlatiniform prodromal rash appeared. On the
24th he was admitted to the North-Eastern Hospital as a case of scarlet fever. On the 26th
the diagnosis of smallpox was made, the papular eruption being then considered to be in its second
day, and the patient was moved to the smallpox hospital, where he died on 30th July. He
had never been vaccinated.
Other cases of smallpox were afterwards reported in East London, and it was found that
the St. Pancras case was the first recognised of an outbreak comprising 12 cases. The first case
was a youth of 16 living at Crispin Street, Spitalfields, who fell ill on 1st July and developed the
rash on 3rd-4th July. His illness was diagnosed as chicken-pox, and he appears to have spread
the disease in the neighbourhood of Houndsditch and Middlesex Street. The source of infection
of this case was not known. The St. Pancras case was considered to have contracted his infection
in the course of his visits to this neighbourhood, where he bought his stock in trade as an itinerant
vendor of " fancy articles."
The patient's family comprised 8 persons and there were 4 other lettings in the house,
comprising 9 persons. Seven other personal contacts were traced. These persons and others
were kept under observation and most of them were revaccinated. There were no secondary
cases ; nor were there any at the hospital where the patient w as first treated.
There were no St. Pancras cases in the larger outbreak of smallpox which began later in
the year at the Poplar workhouse.
There were 64 cases of smallpox in the County of London in 1922, and 20 deaths.
Vaccination.
The following table is drawn up from returns kindly supplied by the Clerk to the
Guardians in respect of children whose births were registered in the Parish of St. Pancras from
1st January to 31st December, 1921, inclusive :—
* Corrected so as to represent individual courses of treatment.