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In 200 of the cases the patients were children attending school, and in 154 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 192 other cases, although the patients themselves were not school-going children,
there were other children in the houses who were. In 54 instances the histories showed
that there had been cases of " sore throat" amongst the inmates of the houses in
which the patients resided. In 55 instances there was evidence pointing to infection
from previous cases in the Borough. In 297 instances the houses were occupied by
members of more than one family, in 99 by single families, and in 35 instances the
cases occurred in artisans' dwellings of the block type. With regard to the sanitary
condition of the dwellings, in 274 this was satisfactory, in 75 fairly so, and in 82
it was unsatisfactory, but these figures must not be taken as an indication that a
satisfactory condition is favourable to the occurrence of diphtheria in houses ; their
significance has been referred to in previous reports.
The cases certified as diphtheria in the metropolis numbered 15,346, the attack
rate being 3.4 per 1,000. The deaths numbered 1,137 and the death-rate was 0.25
per 1,000 population, the case-mortality being 7.4 per cent.
ENTERIC FEVER.
The cases certified numbered five, being at the rate of 0.4 per 1,000 population.
Of these, three subsequently proved not to be cases of enteric fever. Three of the
cases were in Hoxton, one in Wenlock, and one in Whitmore Wards. The four cases
in the first two of the Wards mentioned were in females. Of the two persons who
actually had enteric fever, one was a boy under four years old and the other a
schoolgirl aged 12 years. Nothing was ascertained throwing light upon the source
of infection in either case. All the cases certified recovered.
ERYSIPELAS.
The cases certified as erysipelas numbered 54, with three deaths.