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Discharge Notices.
The number of certificates received from the Metropolitan Asylums Board
regarding the return of patients sent to hospital with infectious diseases was
306 and referred to 511 cases. Visits were paid to these cases by the District
Inspectors, and advice given as to the date of the return of children to school,
and the advisability of obtaining treatment for and isolation of any suffering
from any sequel of a disease.
Diphtheria and Membranous Croup.
The number of cases notified during the year was 109, of which 9 proved
fatal (8.2 per cent.) The number of cases per 10,000 of the population was 8.6.
Swabs from 73 doubtful cases were examined bacteriologically, with a
positive result in 16 instances and a negative in 57.
The districts which suffered most from the disease were All Souls with 29
and Christ Church with 45 cases. St. Mary with 21, exceeded St. John (14)
by 7.
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As will be seen from Table III (page 72), the majority of the cases occurred
in the age groups 1—5 and 5—15, practically all the deaths taking place in these
groups also.
In investigating the notified cases, the following nuisances were found and
dealt with by the Inspectors:—
Dirty premises, etc. 33
Defective drainage 16
Scarlet Fever.
The total number of cases of this disease notified in 1909 was 458, as
compared with 409 in 1908. Deaths due to scarlet fever numbered 8 (17
per cent.). The incidence of the disease was chiefly in children in the age
groups, 1—5 and 5—15, and the quarter ending 2nd October gave the bulk of the
cases. The district most affected was Christ Church (181), a slight epidemic in
the early autumn in the neighbourhood of Circus Street, Marylebone Road, and
traceable to one or two mild undetected cases, accounting for the increase in the
third quarter of the year. All the deaths from the disease were of children
between one and 15 years of age. The weekly rise and fall in the number of
cases is shown in the chart inset at the beginning of this report.
As regards the source of infection, in 264 of the 458 cases, no definite clue
could be obtained. In the remaining 194, infection was supposed to have been
acquired from another member of the family in 92 instances; from a previous case