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ENTERIC FEVER.
The number of cases of enteric fever notified during the
year was 15 as compared with 5 during the previous year and 3
during 1935. Of these cases 5 were males and 10 females.
The case rate was 0.06 per 1,000 living. One death in a male was
registered, and the death rate was 0.004 Per 1,000 of the population.
The fatality rate was 6.67 per cent. All the patients notified
were treated in hospital.
The cases were spread fairly equally throughout the year,
5 occurring in the first quarter, 3 in the second quarter, 3 in the
third quarter, and 4 in the fourth quarter. The ward distribution
was also fairly broad, as will be seen from Table III. In considering
this table it should be mentioned that two cases occurred in
the same house in Ordnance ward, and a similar happening took
place in West Ham ward. Ten of the 15 cases were between the
ag'es of 15 and 45 years, but 3 of the cases were between the ages
of 2 and 5 years.
In Tables VIII. and IX. the statistics of enteric fever arc
set out since the last years of last century. The enormous decrease
in the number of notifications is well seen. The incidence in the
closing years of the nineteenth century was about eighty times
greater than what it was in the period 1931-1935. A comparison
with the incidence rates for England and Wales so far as they are
available shows a corresponding decline.
The death rates which are set out in Table IX. give an
even more significant illustration of the changes which have been
effected in the comparatively short space of fifty years. The death
rate from enteric fever in West Ham for the period 1881-1885 was
almost 120 times greater than what it was in the period 1931-1935.
There is 110 doubt that the decline in mortality from this disease
is a striking piece of evidence of the beneficial results of
an enlightened system of public health practice. The statement
refers especially to the great improvement in water
supply, which was effected in the early years of the present
century, and to the concurrent and subsequent improvement in
the methods of disposal of faecal matter. The abolition of the
privy, in itself an event apparently only distantly related to the
science of medicine, was fraught with results which were farreaching
in their effect on the health of the nation. The sporadic
cases which occur nowadays are usually due to carriers or to
infected food, and their origin is therefore often difficult to trace.
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