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36
SMALL POX.
In a neighbouring district two persons were known to have been
suffering from this disease, and three in London in the first quarter of
the year, as were two in London in the second quarter.
Owing to the system of voluntary notification, one to the other, by
Medical Officers of Health, your authority was made aware of the facts
and enabled to take the necessary precautions in so far as contacts
were known.
No case has arisen here since 1904.
The agreement with the West Ham Corporation for the reception
and treatment of all our Small Pox patients is still in operation, and
were the disease to occur in our midst I fail to see how it could spread
to any great extent provided every sufferer was known to your officials.
Persons so suffering would gladly be removed to the Small Pox
Hospital, and the housing conditions of our people are not those usually
associated with the spreading of the disease.
Were London generally to suffer then we should also, owing to the
numbers of our people who would be exposed to infection, but no
precautions on our part could prevent that and the remedy suggested
by the majority of the medical profession should not be neglected.
Personally, I believe that vaccination, if not an absolute preventative
for all persons, is a perfectly safe operation and a precautionary
measure that all of us should take whenever Small Pox is rife in the
metropolis.
SCARLET FEVER.
Two hundred and thirty-two cases of this disease were notified in
1910, compared with 506 in 1909; 635 in 1908; 815 in 1907 ; 809 in
1906 and 756 in 1905.
Since the Notification of Diseases Act came into operation in 1889,
our freedom from Scarlet Fever was never so marked, and the total
deaths from this disease were four, showing a case mortality of less than
2 per cent. and a death-rate of .03 per 1,000 of the population.
Nearly 90 per cent. of those attacked were under 15 years of age and
three of the four deaths were in children under five.
The number of cases occurring in each Ward is given on page 35.
The attack rate for the district was 1.7.
The incidence in each Ward varied from 1.1 in Wood Street to 19 in
Hoe Street and the Northern Wards. St. James Street and High Street
had a rate of 1.8 and 1.6 respectively.