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18
From enquiries I have made and the interviews I have had, I cannot find that
any friend or acquaintance of Mrs. B., L. G., or her brother, have had any illness
with a rash since the beginning of December. If the illness was really Small Pox,
then its infectivity must have been very feeble until it was transmitted to Annie L.,
who was very infectious. It is quite possible that the infectivity of the disease
increased in force as it passed from one person to the other.
L. G.'s brother was engaged in a foreign importer's office, but there is no record
that he opened any parcel of foreign goods from the proceeding July until the date
of his illness.
Previous to, and since his illness, his evenings have been occupied in selling
chocolate, &c., in various theatres, music halls and picture palaces. If he had Small
Pox it is possible that he communicated the disease to persons in other districts,
where the connection cannot be traced to this district. He and his sister have
received a bath at our Disinfecting Station and their clothing disinfected. The
bed-clothes have also been disinfected.
There does not seem to be any direct connection between the cases of Small
Pox which have occurred in Stepney and those which have occurred in other districts.
Reginald H., of Westminster, did not work in the same premises as one of the L.'s,
as stated in some quarters. He had only been working a week in this Borough before
he contracted the disease.
I should like to correct another error which has been made. It was stated
officially at the last meeting of the Mile End Guardians that the epidemic of 1901
and 1902 started in Key Street. This is not so. No case of Small Pox occurred in
Key Street in 1901 or 1902.
Everything is done to stamp out the disease by this department that is humanly
possible. I do not anticipate that we shall have very many cases, but it is too soon
to prophesy until Monday or Tuedsay, when it will be possible to estimate the extent
of the damage done through the contacts of D 12 ward of the Mile End Infirmary.
Scarlet Fever.
423 cases of Scarlet Fever were notified during the year, or 75 less than in the
previous year. 405 were removed to Fever Hospitals.
96 belonged to the Limehouse District, with no deaths.
52 belonged to St. George-in-the-East, with no deaths.
188 belonged to Mile End Old Town, with 6 deaths.
87 belonged to the Whitechapel District, with 3 deaths.
The death rate for the whole Borough was .03 per 1,000 of the population, while
that for the whole of London was .04 per 1,000.