View report page

37
Contacts—1956:
(1) A boy of 13 contracted the disease on the 10th August whilst
residing in a house containing his parents and 4 brothers and sisters.
No spread in the actual family came to light but a boy of 10 attending
a different school altogether but a friend of the patient became ill on
the 27th August.
(2) A housewife of 34 contracted the disease on the 19th July,
there being in the house also 3 school children aged 15, 13 and 7. The
13-year-old commenced the disease on the 21st August.
(3) On the 1st July a girl of 7 years contracted the disease to be
followed on the 29th July by the sister aged 10. A friend of the above
children a girl of 7—commenced the disease on the 11th August.
Of the remaining cases in one instance the brother of a man in the
Services (who was a case) had had Jaundice 3 months before.
It is certainly of interest to note that although the disease showed
itself in one particular instance amongst families living under largely
communal conditions there was not in fact any spread.
Contacts—1955:
In one family a boy of 12 contracted the illness on the 12th
November to be followed by a brother of 7 on the 11th December and a
brother of 16 on the 21st December.
Remarks.
It is exceedingly difficult to draw any firm conclusions from the
foregoing details or at any rate to draw such conclusions as would suggest
that this illness has anything like a fixed pattern of behaviour. Viewed
in the light of any or all of the headings under which the two years
have been compared, the results do not appear to provide a consistent
picture.
Whilst Rainham, including both years, provides the largest single
Ward number of cases, North West in fact had more cases in 1956 and
Town Ward had the same numbers, whilst in 1954 Cranham had of
course more than any of them.
So far as concerns actual infectivity it would seem that this at any
rate for the two years under review is not, speaking generally, of a high
order and has an incubation period which may be of several weeks
duration.
The limited analysis I have made of the position in this district
during the two years mentioned does not so far as I can see establish
anything save the inconsistency of the disease but nevertheless may be
of value in providing comparative data for use with similar investigations
made either here or elsewhere.