[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council 1895].

  • London County Council (London, England). County of London.
Date:
[1896?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council 1895]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/174 (page 33)
    33 that in 1895 the case mortality of males was 22.7 compared with 25.8 in 1894, and that of females was 19.6 compared with 23.1 in 1894. The difference in the case mortality in the two years at the early ages has been marked. Diphtheria,*1895. Age period. Males. Females. Cases. Deaths. Case mortality per cent. Rates per 100,000 living. Cases. Deaths. Case mortality per cent. Rates per 100,000 living. Cases. Deaths. Cases. Deaths. All ages. 5,107 1,158 22.7 247 56 6,116 1,198 19.6 265 52 0— 175 92 52.6 312 164 125 66 52.8 219 116 1— 423 205 48.5 842 408 364 182 50.0 718 359 2— 486 202 41.6 925 384 434 178 41.0 822 337 3— 578 191 33.0 1,135 375 618 197 31.9 1,186 378 4— 543 165 30.4 1,097 333 577 176 30.5 1,160 354 5— 1,580 247 15.6 672 105 1,733 306 17.7 730 129 10— 554 33 6.0 258 15 733 48 6.5 335 22 15— 253 5 2.0 123 2 424 17 4.0 186 7 20— 166 5 3.0 82 2 333 6 1.8 137 2 25— 238 4 1.7 69 1 475 7 1.5 119 2 35— 72 6 8.3 28 2 191 7 3.7 67 2 45— 30 2 6.7 17 1 77 3 3.9 38 1 55 and upwards. 9 1 11.1 5 1 32 5 15.6 14 2 The following rates are interesting in view of the fact that anti-toxic serum has been, especially in 1895, employed in the treatment of diphtheria— Age-period. Case mortality per cent. Males. Females. 1893. 1894. 1895. 1893. 1894. 1895. All ages. 26.4 25.8 22.7 21.8 23.1 19.6 0— 66.9 56.0 52.6 57.6 58.3 52.8 1— 65.8 59.5 48.5 67.2 58.6 50.0 2— 53.2 44.4 41.6 43.9 50.5 41.0 3— 45.9 40.5 33.0 45.3 37.5 31.9 4— 38.5 31.5 30.4 37.0 36.5 30.5 5— 20.9 18.5 15.6 24.2 21.6 17.7 10— 6.6 8.4 6.0 6.1 6.3 6.5 15— 2.8 3.9 2.0 3.3 2.9 4.0 20— 3.2 4.5 3.0 1.9 2.5 1.8 25— 2.8 2.4 1.7 2.9 2.9 1.5 Reference to the reports of the medical officers of the Metropolitan Asylums Board contained in the reports of the Statistical Committee of that Board shows that anti-toxin began to be used by them in the last few months of 1894. Diphtheria—Seasonal variations in fatality. I have already discussed the subject of seasonal variations in the fatality of scarlet fever, and it will suffice here to state that the additional figures, which the year 1895 supplies, tend to confirm the view that diphtheria fatality is subject to a like variation. This will be seen from the following tables. It may be pointed out that, as in the case of scarlet fever, so in the case of diphtheria, the fatality of the month of August constitutes an interruption to the fall of fatality from the maximum to the minimum. This, as in the case of scarlet fever, is probably in some degree owing to a difference in the age incidence of that month compared with that of other months, due to the decrease in the pre valence of diphtheria at the school age as the result of the August holiday. *In the preparation of this table, the question whether the persons, who were attacked and who died, belonged to London is disregarded, the percentage being calculated on the number of cases notified in London, and the number of deaths occurring in London and the institutions belonging to London. Inasmuch as the age of the patient is not in all cases recorded in the notification certificate, it has been necessary to distribute such cases among the various ages proportionately. [5]