London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Surbiton 1910
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Surbiton]
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scale, the mortality from diphtheria according to the day of the disease on which the serum was used. The number of cases recorded is 2,496.
| Day of Illness. | Patients. | Deaths. | Percentage of Mortality. |
|---|---|---|---|
| First | 90 | 2 | 222 |
| Second | 611 | 20 | 327 |
| Third | 707 | 38 | 537 |
| Fourth | 504 | 45 | 8.92 |
| Fifth | 276 | 26 | 9.42 |
| Sixth | 122 | 12 | 9.83 |
| Seventh | 104 | 14 | 13.46 |
| Later | 82 | 14 | 17.07 |
| 2496 | 171 | 6.85 |
Before the advent of the anti-toxin treatment
the published mortality at the Metropolitan
Asylums Board Hospitals was 35 per cent., and at
the Edinburgh City Hospitals 25 to 30 per cent.
Now the mortality in cases treated with anti-toxin
is from 3 to 14 per cent., according to the virulence
of an epidemic.
Lovell Drage, of Hatfield, says:—"Diphtheria
anti-toxin is only an antidote to the poison
of the Klebs Loeffler bacillus, it is no antidote to
the poison of other bacteria." That is to say, if
as the result of a bacteriological examination
some cases are found to present streptococci, and
others have micrococci of various species, and no
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