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23
GLANDERS, ANTHRAX AND HYDROPHOBIA.
No cases of the above diseases were notified in Shoreditch during the year.
Some seven cases of anthrax were notified in London.
PNEUMONIA, MALARIA AND DYSENTERY.
Some 317 cases of acute primary and 41 cases of influenzal pneumonia were
certified during the year, also three cases of malaria.
Of the cases of pneumonia investigated, 235 were treated in St. Leonard's
Hospital, 30 in other hospitals, principally the Metropolitan, Queen's, St. Bartholomew's
and the Mildmay Mission; 55 were nursed at home by relatives and 21 were
nursed with the help of the District Nursing Association. Some 42 other cases of
pneumonia also received nursing assistance. Altogether 692 visits were made by
the District Nurses in connection with pneumonia cases. Evidence of infection was
obtained in 14 of the cases enquired into. In 145 the dwellings occupied were satisfactory
with respect to air space, light and ventilation, in 70 they were fair, and
in the remaining 126 they were unsatisfactory.
Two of the malaria cases were in men who had been abroad and the third was
in a woman. The latter had not been out of the country so far as could be ascertained,
but her husband, who had been a soldier in India, had had an attack of malaria
about six weeks before the case of his wife was certified, which was on November 5th.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES AND SCHOOLS.
The numbers of children belonging to Shoreditch who were suffering from
infectious diseases, or were resident in houses in which infectious diseases existed,
concerning whom intimations of exclusion from school were received from head
teachers in accordance with the requirements of the school management code of the
London County Council, were as follows:—One for enteric fever, two for encephalitis
lethargica, one erysipelas, 543 for diphtheria, 521 for scarlet fever, 907 measles,
692 chicken-pox, 502 whooping cough, 262 mumps, and 332 for other infectious
ailments. The exclusions altogether numbered 3,763 and related to 42 schools.
Early in the year, a scheme drawn up by the School Medical Officer with a view
to the more effective control of measles in public elementary schools was put into
operation in consequence of the increase in the number of cases amongst the children
attending certain of the schools in the Borough. The scheme involves close cooperation
between the school nurse, head teacher, school attendance staff and the
public health staff of the Borough, special attention being paid to the children
under five years of age particularly with a view to the provision of nursing assistance
where necessary at the earliest possible moment. The schools referred to included
the infant departments at Canal Road, Napier Street, Redvers Street, Scawfell
Street, Shap Street and Trinity Place.