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18
Infectious Diseases and the Measures taken to prevent
their Spread.
It will be seen from Table B that 77 notification certificates
of infectious illness were received from medical practitioners in
the District, as against 171 in the year 1894.
These 77 cases represent infection in 68 different houses,
each of which was subsequently disinfected where necessary. In
24 the disinfection was performed by the Sanitary Authority, and
in 29 cases by householders to the satisfaction of their medical
attendant. A visit was paid to each house, and it was ascertained
that 7 of the 77 cases of infectious illness occurred in houses in
which there "grave" sanitary defects, 27 in which the sanitary
defects were "slight," and 34 in which there were no sanitary
defects. In forming these conclusions I have fully considered
whether any sanitary defect found was of a nature which is
generally held by health officers to predispose to or directly bring
about the particular disease in question.
Thus, apart from the measures which have been taken to
prevent the spread of infectious illness, the notification of such
illness was the means during the year of bringing about a sanitary
inspection of 68 premises and the abatement of insanitary conditions
in 34.
The infectious sickness rate of the District was 4.18 to
each 1000 of the population, whereas it was 9.49 in 1894. It
will be seen from Table Bl that with the sole exception of Typhoid
Fever—of which the cases equalled those of the preceding year —
the returns of infectious illness from the notifiable diseases
Small-pox, Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria, Erysipelas, Puerperal Fever,
Typhoid and Typhus Fevers, and Membranous Croup, are unprecedentedly
low.