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removed and treated, but there is reason to think that this is not
always so. It is very difficult to make persons realize that in this matter
candour and truthfulness are desirable, and the measures taken are for
the public good.
As reported last year, in spite of efforts made to have all disinfection
performed by your servants, skilled in the work, many certificates were
received of private disinfection to the satisfaction of the medical
attendant, and in April I recommended, and in May the Council
decided, that a circular letter should be sent to all the local medical
practitioners informing them that no certificate of private disinfection
would be accepted by the Council as satisfying the provisions of the
Infectious Diseases Prevention Act 1890 (Secs. 5 and 6). The
co-operation of the medical profession in this as in other sanitary
measures has been freely given, and the desired alteration effected.
After recovery from Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria, by order of the
Council, three weeks must elapse before children suffering from the
former, and two weeks in case of the latter, can resume school attendance.
To obviate the necessity of parents and others visiting the Sanatorium
to enquire about their children's progress, daily lists are exposed at
the Town Hall, showing the condition of each patient.
Outfits for early Diphtheria and Typhoid diagnoses are kept at the
Town Hall, and supplied gratuitously to medical men, as well as a stock
of reliable Anti-Diphtheritic Serum for those too poor to pay for it in
the ordinary way.
Notification of Phthisis is not compulsory nor resorted to. The
weekly returns of the Registrar supply the only information when a case
of death from this disease occurs. An offer to disinfect the room and
bedding of the patient is made, and during the year 30 such disinfections
have been carried out.
Owing to the infectious nature of Phthisis this measure, however
useful in itself, is but partial, and during the illness of the patient
the most stringent precautions should be taken to be effective.
SMALL POX.
During the year only two cases of this disease were notified; both
were removed to hospital and recovered.
Vaccination and re-vaccination are believed by ninety-nine per cent.
of medical men to be the best preventative of this disease, and the
action of the West Ham Guardians in appointing two additional public
vaccinators may help to get over the prejudices of some to the operation.