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25
The Relieving Officer informs me that during the year 611
primary vaccinations have been performed. The number of
births registered was 1,167, showing the proportion of infants
vaccinated to be 523 per 1,000. This is an undesirable state of
affairs, and it is only by extreme vigilance on the part of the
Public Health Department that spread of the disease does not
occur
Scarlet Fever.
231 cases of this disease were notified during the year in
comparison with 167 in 1918. In common with other London
districts there was a marked rise in the number of cases in the
autumn and winter of 19'19. As is well known scarlet fever
shows a periodic rise in incidence every fifth to sixth year. The
disease was fortunately of a mild type and only one death of an
Ilford resident occurred, and this in a hospital outside Ilford.
Diphtheria.
260 cases were notified during 1919 as compared with 216
in 1918. The increase, 'however, is not a real one, as 101 of the
cases occurred in Dr. Barnnrdo's Girls' Village Homes, and most
of these were not true clinical cases but children suffering from
discharging ears, the diphtheria bacillus having been detected
bacteriologicallv in the discharge.
It is necessary to notify these cases as they may, under
certain unknown conditions, act as "carriers" of the disease to
healthv children. The problem of dealing with them is a very
difficult one, and is much exercising the minds of the authorities
of the Home. In my opinion surgical treatment of the ears
affected is the only method likely to be successful.
Enteric Fever.
Fourteen cases only were notified during 1919, and of these
six occurred in Claybury Mental Hospital and one in West Ham
Mental Hospital.