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12
Outbreak of Smallpox
The following is a Report by the Medical Officer of Health in
conjunction with Dr GDW McKendrick, Consultant Physician, St
Ann's General Hospital and Dr c G Nicol, Medical officer,
Jflinistry of Health and which in modified form was published in
the "Lancet" on the 17th May, 1958
Looked at in retrospect and in the graphic picture below, the
smallpox outbreak in Tottenham in the summer of 1957 appears small
in size and neatly disposed of as an epidemiological study This
does not mean, however, that the incident was other than a full
scale exercise in accepted methods of investigation and control;
nor that it was without clinical, social and administrative
features of special interest What may not be so easy to explain
is why the disease did not spread more widely in this and other
districts, despite the measures taken