View report page

12
Diphtheria
646 cases were notified during the year, or 122 less than in the previous
year. 044 were removed to fever hospitals:—
101 belonged to the Limehouse District, with 8 deaths.
110 belonged to St. George-in-the-East, with 2 deaths.
238 belonged to Mile find Old Town, with 15 deaths.
107 belonged to the Whitechapel District, with 6 deaths.
The death-rate for the whole Borough was .12 per 1,000, while that for
the whole of London was -0!) per 1,000 of the population.
Enteric Fever.
52 cases were notified during the year, or 20 more than in the previous
year:—
4 belonged to the Limehouse District, with no deaths.
5 belonged to St. George-in-the-East, with no deaths.
34 belonged to Mile End Old Town, with 2 deaths.
9 belonged to the Whitechapel District, with 3 deaths.
The death-rate for the whole Borough was .02 per 1,000, while that for
the whole of London was .01 per 1,000 of the population.
Enteric fever is a specific disease, infectious chiefly or entirely through
the excretions.
The incubation period is variable. As a rule it is about a fortnight
but in exceptional cases it may be as short as 5 days or as long as 22 or 23
days. Generally, it is shorter in cases infected through the milk supply.
The beginning of the disease is often very little marked. The patient feels
ill, depressed, unfit for work; he may have a headache, pains in the limbs
and back, loss of appetite, &c. These may come upon him so that he scarcely
knows when they began, but not uncommonly he fixes a day on which he
first felt ill. There may be diarrhoea in the first few days, sometimes there
is constipation; he takes a purgative and the bowels continue loose. He
may go about his work for a week before he lays up.
The temperature is characteristic in the first 4 or 5 days: it goes up two
degrees in the evening and down one degree in the morning, but it so often
happens that the temperature is not taken, and if it is, it is not taken night
and morning.