View report page

19
In 77 of the cases the patients were children attending school and in 60 of
these they were at school within a week of being certified as having the disease.
As noted in previous years, there were instances in which the children were at
school whilst suffering from diphtheria, before the nature of their illness was recognised.
In 60 other cases, although the patients themselves were not school-going
children, there were other children in the houses who were. In 21 instances the
histories showed that there had been cases of "sore throat" amongst the inmates of
the houses in which the patients resided. In 28 instances there was evidence
pointing to infection from previous cases in the Borough. In 119 instances the
houses were occupied by members of more than one family, in 33 by single families,
and in 9 instances the cases occurred in artisan's dwellings of the block type. With
regard to the sanitary condition of the dwellings, in 93 this was satisfactory, in 27
fairly so, and in 41 it was unsatisfactory, but these figures must not be taken as an
indication that a satisfactory sanitary condition is favouable to the occurrence
of diphtheria in houses. Similar proportions have been obtained in inspecting
houses in which no diphtheria cases were notified.
The cases certified as diphtheria in London numbered 7,654 as compared with
7,109 in 1912, 7,378 in 1911, 5,508 in 1910, 6,783 in 1909, 7,840 in 1908 and 8,585 in
1907, the attack-rates being 1.7, 1.5, 1.6, 1.1, 1.4, 1.6 and 1.8 per 1,000 population for
the 7 years respectively. The deaths from the disease in the Metropolis numbered
431 as compared with 452 in 1912, 612 in 1911, 434 in 1910, G05 in 1909 and 724 in
1908, the deathrate for the six years respectively being 0.09, 0.10, 0.11, 0.09, 0.12
and 0.15 per 1,000 population.
ENTERIC OR TYPHOID FEVER.
The cases including one of continued fever numbered 15 as certified, but 5
were subsequently not regarded as cases of enteric fever at the hospitals to which
they were removed, one proving to be a case of Typhus fever.
(174)

B 2