View report page

76
NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE.
Voluntary Notification.—Upon ray appointment, in
1871, I set about getting information of the occurrence of
dangerous infectious diseases. An arrangement was made for
immediate report by the sub-district registrars of deaths from
these diseases. The aid of the Guardians' officers was enlisted,
and subsequently that of the Authorities of General Hospitals and
Dispensaries. Medical men, Clergymen, and District Visitors
were requested to co-operate; and in 1877 the School Board
for London assented to my request, that their "Visitors"
should report to Medical Officers of Health all cases of infectious
disease coming to their knowledge in the course of visitation of
the homes of absentee children. Later, the Board at my
request instructed the Head Teachers to render the same
service, and I sought also the help of the Head Teachers of all
other public elementary schools. The Police and Postal authorities
moreover, were successfully requisitioned for assistance. From
these various sources information has been obtained—information
rendered doubly valuable by the facilities afforded for isolating
the sick in the Asylums Board Hospitals. Desiring to form
an opinion on the probable results of Compulsory Notification,
I made an enquiry, in 1883, as to the results that had attended
voluntary notification as practised in Kensington. I compared
two periods of twelve years each—the first period, 1859-70,
without notification and without hospitals; the second period,
1871-82, with voluntary notification and with hospitals. The
results were striking, shewing that in the second period of
twelve years, the deaths, after correction for increase of population,
were 1,441 fewer (annual average 120) than in the first
period; the decrease in scarlet fever and enteric fever being
especially conspicuous. During the last four years a further
source of information has been opened up; the Asylums Board
reporting daily to the Medical Officer of Health, all admissions
to their Hospitals from his district, and once a week sending
to every Medical Officer of Health a list of all eases admitted