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

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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London

Shoreditch 1905

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]

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11
The cases of notifiable infectious disease, excluding chicken-pox, certified in the
metropolis numbered some 32,880, which gives an attack-rate of 7.0 per 1,000 population.
The rate for Shoreditch. therefore, was considerably higher than that of the
metropolis as a whole during the year under consideration.

Table: Subjoined is a list of the infectious diseases which are notifiable to the Medical Officer of Health, showing the numbers of cases certified in the Borough for each of the four quarters of the year, and the numbers and percentages of such cases which were removed to hospital for treatment:—

Subjoined is a list of the infectious diseases which are notifiable to the Medical Officer of Health, showing the numbers of cases certified in the Borough for each of the four quarters of the year, and the numbers and percentages of such cases which were removed to hospital for treatment:—

Disease.First Quarter.Second Quarter.Third Quarter.Fourth Quarter.Total.Deaths.
Small Pox11......22
Scarlet Fever or Scarlatina9216231821778927
Diphtheria and Membranous Croup5555412617717
Typhus..................
Cholera..................
Enteric Fever (Tyhoid)381213362
Continued Fever..................
Relapsing Fever..................
Puerperal Fever412294
Erysipelas363530371383
Totals191262403295115155
Numbers and percentagesof cases removed to Hospitals.142216364215967
74%82%90%83%83%

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As compared with the figures for 1904, the cases of scarlet fever during 1905
were more than doubled. There was also a marked increase in the number of cases
certified as puerperal fever. The cases of the other notifiable infectious diseases were
not so numerous as in 1904.
The deaths from notifiable infectious disease numbered 55, as compared with 50
in 1904, 49 in 1903, 144 in 1902, 72 in 1901, 99 in 1900, 121 in 1899, 96 in 1898, 136
in 1897, 135 in 1896, and 117 in 1895. The marked increase in the number of deaths
in 1902 was due to the small-pox outbreak of that year. The deaths from the principal
infectious diseases which are notifiable, namely, small-pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria,
and enteric fever, were at the rate of 0.3 per 1,000 population, as compared
with 2.5 for the principal infectious diseases which are not notifiable, namely,
measles, whooping cough, and diarrhoea.
METROPOLITAN ASYLUMS BOARD.
As mentioned in former reports, the great majority of the cases of infectious
disease removed Ic hospital for treatment were taken to the various hospitals of the