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55
(2) Male, 38 years of age ; chauffeur at a country house
in Sussex where another servant was also said to be ill.
(3) Male, 24 years of age. No ascertained source of
infection.
(4) Female, 37 years of age. No ascertained source of
infection.
The first case was admitted to the Chiswick and Ealing
Isolation Hospital, the second and third cases were admitted, by
arrangement, to the Willesden Isolation Hospital, while the fourth
case was nursed in the West Middlesex County Hospital. There
were no deaths from the disease.
Puerperal Fever and Puerperal Pyrexia.—Three cases
of puerperal fever were notified during the year, all occurring in
the Chiswick and Ealing Maternity Hospital. The case-rate
for Ealing of 1.7 per thousand total births compares favourably
with the rate of 3.5 per thousand total births for the whole of
England and Wales.
The number of cases of puerperal pyrexia notified during the
year was 28, this showing an increase on the 21 cases notified in
the previous year. Nineteen cases occurred in the Chiswick
and Ealing Maternity Hospital, one in a private nursing home,
one in an institution in London, while the remaining seven cases
occurred at home. The case-rate for Ealing of 16.3 per thousand
total births is well above the case-rate for England and Wales
of 9.6 per thousand total births. These figures suggest that more
cases of puerperal pyrexia are experienced in Ealing than in the
country generally, but there is one factor that must be taken into
consideration in comparing these case-rates. Included in the
19 cases notified from the Chiswick and Ealing Maternity Hospital
are seven in which the home address of the patient was in the
Borough of Brentford and Chiswick. While the Borough of Ealing
has to be credited with all the cases of puerperal pyrexia occurring
in the hospital it must be remembered that the births which take
place are assigned to the areas in which the homes of the patients
are situated. It may be mentioned that on the 1st April, 1934,
by reason of the adjustment of the Borough boundaries, the
Maternity Hospital was transferred to the area of Brentford and
Chiswick, which will, in future, receive all these notifications of
puerperal pyrexia.