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

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Bethnal Green 1879

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green]

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11
TABLE F.
Small Pox
.02 per cent., or 1 in 474 deaths.
Measles
22.13 „ „ 446 „
Scarlatina
16.03 „ „ 6.23 „
Diphtheria
2.53 „ „ 39.50 „
Whooping Cough
31.01 „ „ 3.22 „
Fever
9.07 „ „ 11.02 „
Diarrhoea
14.34 „ „ 6.97 „
Cholera
.04 „ „ 237 „
SMALL POX.
(Decennial average, 77).
Forty-five cases of Small Pox were reported to us from various
sources; of these, only one died at home, thirty-four were removed to
hospital, six of whom died, the same number remaining under treatment
at the end of the year.
The one death in the parish was that of a man aged 30, from the
friends of whom I could gather no particulars as to vaccination, neither
did the medical attendant give any in his certificate.
As to the hospital deaths I have no means of obtaining information
as to vaccination in particular cases. The following interesting
communication was, however, received from Mr. Jebb, the figures and
statements in which so clearly set forth the efficacy of good vaccination
and re-vaccination that it cannot be too generally known :—
The Metropolitan Asylum District,
37, Norfolk Street, Strand,
London, IV. C., 30th October, 1879.
SIR,—The severe nature of the Small Pox epidemic which visited London
during the Autumn, 1876, and prevailed with more or less intensity during the
whole of 1877 and 1878, and part of 1879, induced the Managers of the Metropolitan
Asylum District, upon whom, in their official capacity, devolved the treatment
of a large proportion of the infected, to collect certain statistical facts which illustrate
the advantages of efficient vaccination and re-vaccination, as evidenced by the
experience of the Medical Superintendents of the several Small Pox Hospitals undef
the control of the Board.
The observations of these gentlemen confirm former opinions on the subject, and
establish beyond doubt the mitigating influences in Small Pox cases of successful
primary vaccination, and the preventive powers of efficient re-vaccination.
The total number of Small Pox patients treated in the various Hospitals of the
Managers, from the outbreak of the epidemic in 1876 until the commencement of the
present month, has been 15,171, of whom 11,412 were vaccinated and 3,759
unvaccinated; and it is believed that for each case treated in the Board's Hospitals,
another was privately attended, hence some idea may be formed of the magnitude
of the epidemic.