View report page

19
For the purpose of reference I shall name the former specially
infected area the "Daubeney Road area," and the latter the
"remainder of Hackney."
The total number of cases of Diphtheria, which occured in the
district of Hackney during the 8 weeks I am considering, was 141,
of which 65 were in the Daubeney Road area, and 76 in the
remainder of Hackney. The attack rate for the former is therefore
3.8 per 1,000, and for the latter .38 per 1,000 living persons.
These rates show that there was a special incidence of Diphtheria
in the former area. On further analysis of the figures I found that
of the 65 cases in the Daubeney Road area, 48 attended schools, 17
did not; of the 78 in the remainder of Hackney, 43 attended schools,
33 did not. Calculated out as percentages for the respective areas,
the former figures give 74 per cent. attending schools, the latter 57
per cent. These figures point to an excess of school-attending cases
in the Daubeney Road area over those in the remainder of Hackney:
but a more accurate estimate of this proportion may be obtained, by
calculating the number of school-attending cases in each area, as a
rate per 1,000 of children at school ages. The ages I take are from
3 to 15. The number of such, calculated from the census of 1891,
in the Daubeney Road area is 4,342, the number in the remainder
of Hackney 50,878, and the respective attack rates per 1,000
children at school ages are 11.05 and .84. These rates show that
school-attending cases were 13 times more numerous in the former
area than in the latter; and more than raise a suspicion that some
scholastic institution was concerned in the increase of Diphtheria.
On analysing the 48 school-attending cases in the Daubeney
Eoad area, I find they were distributed in the four Board Schools
mentioned above in the following proportions:—
Cases.
Average
Attendance.
Daubeney Road Board School
36
1,176
Glyn Eoad „
6
1,226
Bushmore Road ,,
5
1,324
Sidney Road ,,
1
1,376
Total
48