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12
27 cases were returned from hospital as not suffering from
the disease for which they were notified, but if allowance is made
for mild unreported cases, the recorded notifications would, if
anything, understate the actual number of eases.
Diphtheria.
There were 408 cases of diphtheria notified in 1917 as
against 249 cases in 1916. There was therefore a slight recrudescence
of the disease, the cause of which I was unable to
discover.
The attack-rate per thousand inhabitants was 3.78, against
2.19 in 1916. The case mortality was 4.4 per cent., against 11.6
per cent, in 1916 and 8.8 per cent, in 1915. 17 cases were returned
as not suffering from this disease.
Scarlet Fever.
The notifications of scalet fever in 1917 were 300 against 252
in 1916.
This is an increase of 48. The distribution of the disease in
the various Wards, as shown in Table V. of Appendix was fairly
uniform.
8 cases were returned from hospital as not suffering from
scarlet fever.
There was 1 death, which gives the very low case' mortality
of 0.3 per cent., against 1.9 per cent. in 1916. The disease, as
in recent years, was of a very mild type. The attack rate per
thousand inhabitants was 2.7 against 2.2 in 1916.
The sources of infection were mostly previous cases. There
was no outbreak traceable to any common cause such as infected
milk or school contagion.
Measles.
The number of deaths for 1917 was 72, against 42 in 1916,
110 in 1915 and 79 in 1914.
There was a considerable prevalence of measles in the.
Metropolis which was shared in by Bermondsey. The number
of primary cases notified was 1,078. including 120 eases of
German measles and 958 of measles.