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45
The beginning of the year, namely, January and February, were
the months that the greatest number of Notifications were received.
In January 27 were received, and in February 18. Of the 27 in
January, 9 occurred in the Fleet Road district, but of these, three were
the inmates of a family of one house. Eight occurred in the Town
Ward district, but were not confined to any area. Three of the cases
were also the inmates of a family in one house.
It appears that the cases notified in January from the Fleet Road
district must have had a sudden termination, as in the month of
February not a single case was notified from the Ward.
In October another slight outbreak occurred in this district, and 8
cases were notified, all of which were scholars or in the family of
scholars of the Fleet Road Schools.
My pointing out the prevalence of Diphtheria to the London
County Council caused that body to have all the throats of children in
the infected class rooms swabbed and bacteriologically examined; several
cases were thus brought to light. All class rooms in which the cases
occurred were thoroughly disinfected by this Department, and the
disease promptly subsided.
In November I gave instructions for a sanitary inspection to be
made at the Schools, and the drains were tested and found defective,
the disease, however, abated in November, there being only one case
notified from the district during that month, and this was a contact case.
Ward 5 (West End) was the Ward in which the disease was
most prevalent during the year, there being 37 cases notified against
35 in Ward 2 (Belsize Ward), and 34 in Ward 6 (Kilburn Ward).
The disease was, however, well distributed over Ward 5, and there
was nothing in the nature of a serious outbreak occurring, as the largest
number of cases notified in any month was 7 in February.
In accordance with the Diphtheria Anti-toxin (London) Order,
1910, the Borough Council supply Anti-toxin free to medical practitioners
for use for the poorer inhabitants of the Borough. Ten
applications for Anti-toxin were received during the year, and 38,000
units were supplied.
The total number of specimens examined during the year was 247,
of which 68 gave a positive, and 179 a negative result.