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cases of these diseases certified was 509, and the number removed to hospital was
462 or 90.7 percent. as compared with 93.1 percent. in 1902, 86.3 in 1901, 84.7 in
1900, 82.4 in 1899, 81.4 in 1898, 71.4 in 1897, 65 in 1896,57 in 1895, and 61 in 1894.
The marked increase in the percentage, which is observable for the year 1902, was
the result of the small-pox outbreak as mentioned in the report for that year, and is
exceptional, still, comparing with the percentages for the years prior to 1902, a very
material increase in the number of cases sent to hospital for treatment is to be
observed for the year under consideration. That 90 percent. of the infectious cases
referred to above were removed to hospital is of itself a sufficient indication as to the
extent the advantages afforded by hospital treatment of such cases is appreciated by
the people of Shoreditch. As has been mentioned in previous reports isolation in the
proper sense of the word is practically impossible in the vast majority of the homes
in the Borough. The prompt removal of the patients becomes therefore one of the
most important elements in the prevention of the spread of infection. No difficulty
or hitch in securing the prompt removal of patients by the Metropolitan Asylums
Board on the part of the Authorities came under my notice, during the year.
Since the middle of March the Board have adopted the plan, which I believe will
prove very useful, of sending intimations to Medical Officers of Health as to the dates
when it is proposed to discharge patients from their hospitals.
Thirteen instances of recurrence of infectious disease in houses, shortly following
the return of patients who had been treated in the hospitals of the Board, came under
my notice during the year. In 12 of the 13 cases the disease was scarlet fever and in
the other it was diphtheria. In 6 of the instances, all cases of scarlet fever, the
evidence associating the return of the patient from the hospital with the recurrence of
the disease was very strong and left little room for doubt that the returning patient
was the source of infection. In the other cases the evidence was not sufficient to
warrant such a conclusion being arrived at.
SMALL-POX.
Comparatively few cases of small-pox occurred in London during 1903.
Altogether a few over four hundred were certified in the Metropolis. Cases occurred
in all the sanitary districts except two. They were most numerous in Stepney,
Poplar, Wandsworth, St. Pancras, Battersea, Southwark, Westminster and Lambeth,
Shoreditch was free from cases. From the date of the last cases in November 1902
until the end of the year 1903 not a single ease was certified amongst the residents of
Shoreditch. One intimation was received as to a man having been admitted to the
Holborn Union Workhouse suffering from small-pox from the Holborn Sanitary District.
The case was notified to the Medical Officer of Health of the district from which the
patient came to the institution and removed to the small-pox hospital. The necessary
steps were taken to prevent the spread of infection and no further cases occurred. Several
intimations were received from Medical Officers of Health relative to persons working or