London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Southall-Norwood 1935

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Southall-Norwood]

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Table No . 35.

YearMaleFemaleTotalEstimated populationRate per 1,000 population
192218183630,2611.18
192321143531,3601.11
192420183831,8001.19
1925??4032,2201.24
192612112332,8700.69
192713132633,4800.77
192818274535,3401.27
192912102235,3700.62
193017294637,5601.22
193120284839,2801.22
193222234541,5301.08
193323285144,7801.13
193422274946,6931.04
193530275748,2701.18

Special Infectious Diseases.
Smallpox.
No patients with smallpox or contacts of cases of smallpox were notified
to the Department during the year.
Scarlet Fever.
The number of notifications received during the year was 122 as
compared with 183 for the previous year.
Of these, 107 were removed to the Isolation Hospital.
Infection appears to have been mainly due to case-to-case contact. Most
of the cases were of a very mild character. In some cases the rash was of
fleeting duration ; in other cases there were very few signs in the throat.
Scarlet fever is becoming each year a more and more difficult disease
with which to deal administratively. This is because the virulence of the
organism appears to be decreasing, and as a consequence the disease is less well
defined and is more difficult to diagnose. The organism causing scarlet fever
is one of a group of organisms known as the Haemolytic Streptococci.
Organisms in this group may cause diseases such as puerperal fever, septic
tonsillitis, sore throat, mastitis in cattle, etc. The diagnosis of scarlet fever, as
its name implies, used to be based on the production of a scarlet coloured rash,
but the prevailing organism now found may not produce a rash at all. Instead,
it may produce only a temporary sore throat, or on the other hand it may
produce a severely ulcerated throat or tonsillitis. It seems however that
organisms which may produce only a sore throat in one person can be as
infectious as an organism producing a scarlet rash and other symptoms of
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