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

View report page

East Ham 1907

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for East Ham]

This page requires JavaScript

56
throat condition remained. These were transferred to the Scarlet
Fever Ward, and are included in the number of cases reported
there.
In 220 completed cases 19 deaths occurred. This equals a
case ortality of 9.4 per cent. This rate is based on cases of actual
Diphtheria alone and excludes those sent in incorrectly diagnosed.
Of the above deaths 6 occurred within a few hours of admission
to Hospital. Such cases tend to unfairly increase the Hospital
death-rate, they are nearly moribund on admission, usually due to
neglect in not obtaining Medical advice earlier.

The number of cases treated in Hospital and the death-rate from this disease during the past five years have been as follows: —

Year.No. of Cases Treated.Mortality per cent. of completed Cases.
19031306.9
190421914.6
190517611.9
190614310.9
19072449.4

The decrease in the death-rate is really greater than the above
figures indicate; during the past two years, since the Bacteriological
Laboratory was established all doubtful cases have by its
assistance been excluded and the rates for this period are based
on cases of actual Diphtheria only.
Of the 244 cases under treatment during the year, 33 had
received an injection of Antitoxine before admission to
Hospital. A very noteworthy feature during the year concerning
this disease was the frequency with which the Larynx was
attacked, constituting what is termed Laryngeal Diphtheria or
Membranous Croup, the operation of Tracheotomy being required
on no less than 23 occasions. Of the 23 cases operated on 19