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97
PLAISTOW HOSPITAL.
Report of Medical Superintendent.
(Dr. D. Maclntyre.)
An outstanding feature of the year 1931 was the marked
decline in the prevalence of diphtheria. The total admissions of
cases of this disease fell from 719 in 1930 to 327 in 1931, and the
deaths, which numbered 10, were the lowest yet recorded for one
year. The disease, on the whole, had become milder and the
clinical appearance of the faucial exudate also showed a distinct
change. It was rarely extensive, and in the majority of the cases
it was soft and pultaceous; in only a few of the cases was the
typical leathery membrane present.
Another feature of the year was the complete absence of
typhoid fever. The incidence of this disease has been steadily
diminishing in recent years, but this is the first time it can be
recorded that a year passed without a single case of the disease
being under treatment in this Hospital.
The admissions of scarlet fever cases fell to 540 from 670 in
the previous year, and 983 in 1929. The type of disease continues
to be very mild.
Whooping cough was unusually prevalent in the district during
the first half of the year, and accommodation was provided
for the severe and complicated cases. More deaths resulted from
this disease than from any of the other infections.
Very few cases of measles were under treatment until near
the end of the year, when an epidemic started in the district. The
first few cases were of a mild type, but as the epidemic progressed
broncho-pneumonia became a common complication.
Erysipelas was unusually prevalent during the year. All ages
were attacked, and the cases were of varying severity.
Towards the end of the year an epidemic of broncho-pneumonia
set in suddenly among infants, and the accommodation
available in the diphtheria wards was used for these cases.
The total number of cases under treatment during 1931 was
1,514. This compares with 1,892 in the previous year and 2,190
in 1929. The total deaths numbered 63, as compared with 62 in
the previous year.