London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Croydon 1939
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Croydon]
This page requires JavaScript
The total number of Scarlet Fever cases admitted during the year was 270 a decrease of 354 on 1938. 230 cases were admitted from the Borough and 40 from Penge. 6 cases sent in as Scarlet Fever were not suffering from the disease, leaving a total of 264 true cases.
| Serum Cases | Non-Serum cages. | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total cases | 42 | 222 | 264 |
| Adenitis | 5 | 26 | 31 |
| Otorrhoea | 3 | 25 | 28 |
| Phirorrhoea | 3 | 12 | 15 |
| Albuminuria. | — | 1 | 1 |
| Nephritis | - | 2 | 2 |
| Rheumatism | - | 4 | 4 |
| Relapses | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Secondary Sore Throat | - | 3 | 3 |
| Abscesses and Boils | - | 3 | 3 |
| Mastoid | - | 3 | 3 |
| Pneumonia | - | 1 | 1 |
| No deaths occurred amongst the scarlet fever cases. | |||
Diphtheria.
315 cases wore admitted with a diagnosis of Diphtheria, a decrease
of 91 cases an 1938. Of these 15 were found not to be cases of
Diphtheria and 110 were cases of positive swabs without clinical symptons,
leaving 190 cases of true clinical diphtheria. There were 17 deaths a
mortality of 8.9%.
The 15 cases not true diphtheria were made up as follows
Simple laryngitis 2
Quinsy 1
Vincent's angina 2
Tonsillitis 10
Total 15
Analyses of 190 cases
Faucial diphtheria 169
Nasal diphtheria 16
Laryngeal diphtheria 1
Faucial laryngeal
diphtheria 2
Faucial nasal diphtheria 2
Total 190
The following complications and sequelae occurred amongst the
diphtheria cases
Rhinorrhoea 6
Otorrhoea 5
Adenitis 6
Heart failure 15
Albuminuric. 3
Secondary sore throat 3
Acute mastoid 2