London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
St Pancras 1923
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Pancras, Metropolitan Borough]
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37
SCARLET FEVER.
487 cases were notified during the year. Of these, 62 were subsequently reported by
the Hospital Authorities not to be suffering from this disease.
The corrected number of cases of Scarlet Fever was, therefore, 425, equal to an incidence
rate of 2'0 per 1,000 of population, as compared with 1102 cases and an incidence rate of 5.2
per 1000 of population in the previous year.
The number of deaths certified as being due to Scarlet Fever during the year was 3,
equal to a death-rate of 0.0l per 1,000 of population, and a case mortality of 0.71 per cent,
of cases notified.
In the following table are set out the corresponding figures for the past 10 years, corrected for errors of diagnosis:—
| Year. | No. of Notifications. | Notification rate per 1,000 population. | No. of Deaths. | Death rate per 1,000 population, | Case Mortality per cent. | Percentage of Cases removed to Hospital. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1914 | 1180 | 5.4 | 19 | 0.09 | 1.6 | 91 |
| 1915 | 900 | 4.1 | 22 | 0.10 | 2.4 | 96 |
| 1916 | 404 | 2.0 | 8 | 0.04 | 2.0 | 96 |
| 1917 | 224 | 1.2 | 4 | 0.02 | 1.8 | 97 |
| 1918 | 289 | 1.6 | 7 | 0.04 | 2.4 | 96 |
| 1919 | 516 | 2.3 | 5 | 0.02 | 1.0 | 96 |
| 1920 | 808 | 3.5 | 11 | 0.05 | 1.4 | 96 |
| 1921 | 1649 | 7.7 | 7 | 0.03 | 0.4 | 96 |
| 1922 | 1102 | 5.2 | 20 | 0.09 | 1.8 | 99 |
| 1923 | 425 | 2.0 | 3 | 0.01 | 0.7 | 99 |
It will be observed that the number of cases notified was exceptionally low, also that the
number of deaths and the death-rate were the lowest hitherto recorded.
Of the 487 cases notified, 480, or 98.6 per cent., were removed to hospital.
Return cases.—This term is applied to cases of Scarlet Fever occurring in the same house
within 28 days of the return from hospital of a previous case.
Such return cases occurred in 10 houses during 1923, the total number of patients being
12. In each of nine houses one return case occurred, and in one house three other cases
occurred.
In four instances the patients on return from hospital either had, or soon developed, some
nasal discharge, but in the remaining cases no obvious source of infection could be discovered.
In three instances the return case occurred in the same house, though not in a member
of the same family.
The home in which three return cases occurred was particularly interesting: there was no
nasal or other discharge present in any of the cases and every care was taken.
The only explanation seems to be that this family possessed a marked susceptibility to
the disease.