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

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Leyton 1933

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Leyton]

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The average period of treatment in hospital was 33.20 days.

19291930193119321933
Number of cases notified489461297360743
Number of cases treated in Hospital308303219223443
Percentage63%65%73%62%59%
Deaths in Hospital12344
Hospital case fatal ity0.32%0.66%1.36%1.79%0.90%

The disease continues to be of the mild type to which we have
been accustomed for many years. Fifty-two scarlet fever patients
received varying doses of diphtheria antitoxin owing to the
intervention of suspicious signs of diphtheria in nose or throat.
It will be seen from these figures that the incidence of scarlet
fever was very high during 1933, the number of cases notified being
the highest since 1921. The number (443) of patients treated in
hospital is also greater than in any year during the past five years.
In spite of the abnormal incidence of the disease during the year,
it was possible to find accommodation in hospital for 59 per cent,
of the cases notified.
During the height of the epidemic it was found necessary to
increase the number of beds per ward beyond the standard accommodation
; and, as happens invariably when fever hospital beds are
too close together, there was an increase in the number of patients
who developed complications.
During the year 1929, treatment by means of intramuscular
injection of scarlet fever antitoxin was commenced in the hospital.
At first the treatment was reserved for the most serious cases,
and it was found that the antitoxin had a marked effect in cutting
short the period of acute fever. During the years 1931 and 1932
this form of treatment was administered to cases of less severe
type with satisfactory results and, at the beginning of 1933, all
cases admitted with scarlet fever received an injection of scarlet
fever antitoxin.