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Seventeen deaths (seven males and ten females) were
attributable to influenza during the year under review.
Smallpox.—Three cases of smallpox were notified, two of
them occurring in the same family. The disease was of the
usual mild modified type prevalent in London at the time.
One patient was an adult who became infected from a
previous unrecognised case which had occurred in the same
house. This latter individual had contracted the disease at
his place of employment in one of the Metropolitan boroughs,
and was already free from all infection when the origin of
the secondary case was traced to him.
The other two cases were children. The first was under
school age and had attended the Day Nursery until the onset
of the rash. The parents of unvaccinated children were
notified and arrangements were made for the Public Vaccinator
to attend at the Nursery to vaccinate those children
whose parents were agreeable to this being carried out. No
further case occurred at the Day Nursery. The patient's
brother, a school child, subsequently developed the disease.
These patients were all removed to the Smallpox Hospital
at Clandon.
Information was received by the Public Health Department
periodically throughout the year of persons resident in
Wimbledon who had been in contact with cases of smallpox
outside the Borough. In all, nine contacts were notified from
other Health Departments. They were kept under observation
for sixteen days by the sanitary staff. None of these
contacts developed the disease. Ninety-two visits were paid
to the houses of smallpox contacts. As in 1932, it was not
considered necessary to make chicken-pox notifiable in
Wimbledon.