View report page

17
fact. This resulted in a careful examination being made and the patient was found
to have a very mild attack of small-pox. She was duly certified and removed to
hospital the same day. The usual steps were taken as regards disinfection and the
patients mother and a sister named Rose F—, aged 21, were accommodated at the
Council's shelter whilst their clothing, &c., were undergoing disinfection. On visiting
the shelter the following day to ascertain whether everything was correct before
they returned to their dwelling, spots were noticed on the girl's arms—just one or two
small scabs. A careful examination placed it beyond doubt that she had had
small pox and was still infectious, and this was confirmed by Dr. Wanklyn who
saw the case. The patient was accordingly certified as having small pox and
removed to hospital. From the history obtained it appears that Rose F– – had
been to see a young man who was subsequently found to be suffering from small pox
and who was removed from an address in Hackney on February 27th, having been
ill from about February 2nd. On February 18th Rose was not well and spots
were noticed on February 21st. Feeling better after a few days she returned
to her work as a box hand, and for several days she must have been in contact
with a number of persons where she worked whilst she had small pox. Probably
from 30 to 40 persons were more or less exposed to infection from her. Many of
these, mostly girls were resident in Bethnal Green, Stepney and elsewhere in the
Metropolis. The Medical Officers of Health of the respective sanitary authorities
were duly notified as to the names and addresses of these contacts. The principal
of the establishment where the patient had been working was warned as to the
danger and all precautions which could be taken by the sanitary authority were
adopted. The employes were kept under observation during the period that further
cases might be expected, and careful enquiries were made but no other cases occurred
notwithstanding the fact that Rose F— had been working amongst them for a
week whilst actually suffering from the disease. Both patients were said to have
been vaccinated but there were no scars observable. So far as could be traced
no other cases arose through infection from these two cases in Shoreditch, nor was
there any reason for believing that there were any elsewhere.
The third case was that of a man, Thomas S—, aged 43, residing in Ebor
Street. He fell ill on March 9th, and the eruption was noticed on the 11th.
He was certified and removed to hospital on March 12th. This patient is said to
have been vaccinated. The usual precautions were taken as regards vaccination and
disinfection. So far as could be ascertained no further cases accurred which were
traceable to infection from this source. All made good recoveries. There were
also two other cases certified as small pox but on arrival at the wharf, the patients
were found not to be suffering from the disease. It may also be mentioned that
during February and March several cases were brought to my notice by Medical
Practitioners as being of a doubtful character and possibly small pox, but they all
proved not to be cases of the disease.
The cases of small pox certified in the Metropolis numbered some 73 and the
deaths 9, the mortality being a little over 12 per cent, of the cases notified.
B