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Annual Report of the Medical Officer of Health—1898 11
TABLE VII.
Mortality in St. George's, in 1898, from the seven principal Zymotic Diseases.
Disease.
Actual number of Deaths
in St. George's, Southwark.
St. George's, Southwark,
proportion to total London
deaths according to its
population.
Diarrhœa
99
59
Measles
43
41
Diphtheria
34
29
Whooping Cough
36
24
Scarlet Fever
20
8
Fever (Typhoid, etc.)
9
8
Small-pox
The mortality from diarrhoea, diphtheria, whooping cough and scarlet fever is
seen from the foregoing table to be excessive in St. George's as compared with all
London. The total absence of deaths from small-pox is in itself a valuable evidence
as to the efficiency of modern preventive measures of vaccination, together with
notification and prompt isolation. How long this immunity will continue under the
new Vaccination Act remains to be seen.
Diarrhœa.
Amongst children diarrhoea is the most deadly preventable complaint in your
parish. With the high figure of 99 it heads the table of mortality from zymotic
diseases. Of this number 73 deaths occurred under the age of one year, 22 between
one and five, and 4 at the age of five and upwards.
In addition to the 99 deaths from diarrhoea coming under the general heading of
"Specific Febrile or Zymotic Diseases "there were 36 deaths from enteritis placed
under the class " Local Diseases."
During the seven years 1892 to 1898 more deaths were due to diarrhoea than
to any other of the seven principal zymotic diseases. This is seen in the following
table :—
TABLE VIII.
Mortality in St. George's, from the seven principal Zymotic Diseases.
Deaths.
1892
1893
1894
1895
1896
1897
1898
Total.
Diarrhœa
53
63
72
61
64
111
99
523
Measles
66
22
100
71
85
67
43
454
Whooping Cough
46
59
64
56
55
32
34
346
Diphtheria ...
26
41
49
19
26
28
36
225
Scarlet Fever
15
41
15
14
10
14
20
114
Fever, chiefly Typhoid
8
12
5
9
7
11
9
61
Small pox
0
7
0
0
0
1
0
8
214
245
305
230
247
264
241
1731
The reason for the exceptional mortality from diarrhoea in 1898 was probably
connected with the hot and dry weather of the third quarter of the year. This
observation coincides with the climatic condition of 1897.