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36
Thirty-two bottles of serum were asked for and used during the year.
In the Registrar's weekly returns all deaths from Phthisis are noted,
and an offer is made to disinfect the rooms and bedding, &c., occupied
by the deceased. In this way 30 such disinfections were carried out.
That such disinfections are very useful there can be no doubt, but
I feel the time has come when all cases of Phthisis should be voluntarily
notified and paid for, followed by simple printed instructions for the
patient and those nursing him, to prevent dissemination while infection
is active.
Mr. West in his report of last year truly pointed out that the Sanitary
Inspector, "once almost solely engaged in the remedying of nuisances
complained of by occupiers, becomes year by year more engaged in
work in connection with infectious diseases, and a good deal of his time
is thus taken up."
This is so, and works in the interests of the community.
Apart from the measures insisted upon by the Inspector to
prevent infection spreading, the householder under such circumstances
is always willing to give a hearty welcome to the officer, and allow him
to thoroughly inspect the premises, and in this connection 841 houses
were inspected during the year which otherwise would not have occurred,
with the result that the sanitary defects set forth in Mr. West's report,
page 82, were remedied.
SMALL POX.
During the year 49 cases of Small Pox were notified, and all were
removed to Dagenham Hospital.
The first case, reported in March, occurred in an unvaccinated child
2½ years old, and living in the Wood Street Ward. The infection was
clearly brought by the parents, who had visited relatives in Seven Kings,
and whose child had Small Pox. The usual precautions were taken,
the child removed to hospital, and no further case arose from this source.
In April two cases were notified—one in Chester Road, from which
there was no spreading, and one in the Northern Ward, on the border
of Forest Road. The latter (a man), after walking through the crowded
street, was seen by me and removed to hospital. He had had the rash
well out for three days, and had been going to his business in London
daily before his removal, nine days after his first symptoms of illness.
There was strong reasons for believing that both contracted the disease
from without the district.