London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Finchley 1894

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Finchley]

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28
Notes on the Outbreak of Throat Affection resembling
Diphtheria (Follicular—and in some cases
Membranous-Folliculitis).
A marked epidemic of throat-illness made its first
appearance on the 8th and 9th of November. By the courtesy
of those medical men who were called in to treat such cases
I was permitted to personally examine 17 cases, and we agreed
that the disease in question was not Diphtheria, although the
appearance of the throat was in some cases markedly diphtheritic
Although the weather during the preceeding fortnight was such as
would in itself account for many so-called sore-throats, there was
much in the appearance of the throats in question and in the
rapid outset of acute symptons, as well as in the course that
i the disease ran, to stamp them as something more than
simple catarrhal conditions. Further these particular cases of
throat affection appeared to possess the property of infectiousness
to a marked degree. There were several houses in which
the complaint cropped up among as many as 4 or 5 members
of the same household under conditions that strongly supported
the probability of spread from case to case. There was no
question of the undoubted fact that in its origin the disease
assumed the characters of a true epidemic; 16 cases occurred
suddenly on either Thursday night or Friday morning, and 8
on the Saturday following.
One significant fact in connection with the outbreak was
the grouping of these initial cases in and around Hendon Lane
12 of the first 24 cases were in this street—these 12 cases
represented infection in 5 different households, and I was
not able to collect evidence of a single case occurring outside
of the sub-district of Church End prior to November nth.
Subsequent to November nth information of fresh cases was
received daily, and by November 18th they had numbered
nearly 100—which were distributed mainly, in about equal
numbers, over Church End and East Finchley; North Finchley
was affected only to about one-third of the extent of these,
and in Whetstone there were only two cases.