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19
(C) OTHER FOODS.
Food Shops.
Food shops were visited regularly as a routine apart from special
visits following complaint. Large quantities of foodstuffs were condemned
and voluntarily surrendered. There was a further increase in the
number of tins of tinned food condemned, the 4,500 tins being : 979 meat,
877 milk, 860 vegetable, 637 fruit, 568 soup, and 530 fish. Other condemned
foodstuffs included 186 stone of fish, 3,189 lbs. of fruit, 528 lbs.
flour, 530 lbs. sugar, 445 lbs. cheese, 430 lbs. bacon; and 950 eggs.
ISOLATION HOSPITALS
ADEQUACY OF ACCOMMODATION.
Although the total number of cases of scarlet fever notified throughout
the year was still above the average of the previous years, because
the distribution was so even with the absence of anything in the nature
of an epidemic prevalence, the accommodation at the two local hospitals
met the demands of patients suffering from this infection. During the
months of lighter prevalence, June to November, it was possible to close
down the Honeypot Lane Hospital. The greatest number of cases of
scarlet fever under treatment on any one day was 52, and of diphtheria 12.
Cases of infections other than scarlet fever and diphtheria have, as in
former years, been admitted to the hospitals of other authorities. In all
80 patients were removed, including 9 cases of puerperal infection.
Arrangements were made with other districts for the admission in
case of need of local patients to their isolation hospitals. In future then,
patients may be admitted to the South Middlesex and Richmond Hospital,
the Enfield, Edmonton and Potters Bar Hospital, the Finchley,
Hornsey. Wood Green and Friern Barnet Hospital, and the Acton
Isolation Hospital.
PROVISION OF NEW HOSPITAL.
This year's figure of 682 notifications of scarlet fever is the greatest
number received, though the incidence rate per thousand population did
not reach the figure of 4.7 of the year 1934 which was the highest rate
for any of the ten years 1934 to 1943. In this year, too, the percentage of
notified cases who were removed to hospital for treatment was the
highest for any year, a figure of 80. Assuming then, the association of
that high incidence and high removal rate, 750 cases of scarlet fever
might require admission from a post-war Harrow population of some
200,000. Were this distribution even throughout the year, the weekly
average of admissions would be only 15. Sero- and chemo-therapy in
the treatment of scarlet fever, coupled with the general mildness of the
complaint today, enables most patients to be detained even less than
three weeks from the day of admission, so that some 50 beds would be
adequate for the reception of scarlet fever patients. This calculation is,
of course, invalidated though, because of the uneven incidence of infection.
On the other hand the figure relates to an incidence nearly double
the average of 2.7 over the past ten years.