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28
DIPHTHERIA.
In 1888, and still more in 1889, diphtheria was endemic in
Kensington, especially in the northern parts of the Parish : the
deaths, 89 and 111 in the two years respectively, were 65 and 79
above the corrected decennial average, In 1890 the deaths were
only 35 or 15 below the corrected average : 29 in the Town subdistrict
and 6 in Brompton; the deaths in the Brompton subdistrict
in the two previous years having been 2 and 5 respectively.
Sixteen of the deaths took place at home and 19 in hospitals—
most of them in the Western Fever Hospital. The quarterly
totals were 17, 5, 6, and 7. The ages at death were: under five
years, 23 (only one in the first year of life), between five and
fifteen 10, and 1 each in the two following decades. The cases
notified as diphtheria were 209, viz., 141 north and 68 south of
Uxbridge Road. Seventy-six of them were removed to hospital,
where, as stated, 19 died, giving a case-mortality of 25 per cent.,
against 12'0 in the 133 home-treated cases—the hospital cases
being, as a rule, severe, while many of those kept at home were
very mild in character.
Of the 209 cases reported 141 were in North Kensington,
i.e., North of Uxbridge Road, and 68 in South Kensington,
i.e., the remainder of the Parish south of Uxbridge Road, against
201 and 44 in 1889. The 141 cases in North Kensington
occurred in 121 families, living in 119 houses, and in 67 streets;
the 68 cases in South Kensington were in 55 families, living in
51 houses and in 44 streets. Twenty-nine of the streets in
North Kensington are in the North-west District, i.e., to the west
of Ladbroke Grove and Ladbroke Grove Road; and 38 in the
North-east District, between those roads and the adjacent parish
of Paddington and the detached portion of Chelsea at Kensal
Green. In 47 of the 67 streets in North Kensington one house
in each street was invaded ; in 5 streets 2 houses were invaded;
in 5 streets 3 houses; in 8 streets 4 houses; in one street
6 houses, and in one street 8 houses. Of the 47 streets in which