Dr. Parsons's report to the Local Government Board on certain outbreaks of diphtheria in the Leek rural sanitary district, Staffordshire / [H. Franklin Parsons].

  • Parsons, H. Franklin (Henry Franklin), 1846-1913
Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Parsons's report to the Local Government Board on certain outbreaks of diphtheria in the Leek rural sanitary district, Staffordshire / [H. Franklin Parsons]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    for the abatement of nuisances, they should be told what the required works are, and the best way (which is by no means necessarily the most expensive one) of carrying them out. If these particulars be not specified in the formal legal notice, they may at least take the form of recommendations, which may precede or accompany the formal notice. In some districts it has been found useful to have lithographed plans and printed specifications giving information on such matters as the proper construction of privies or the details of house drainage for distribution in appropriate cases. In this way the adoption of improved methods of construction may often be brought about, such as perhaps could not be secured by legal compulsion. Recapitulation.—1. Diphtheria, from which the Leek Rural Sanitary District had been free for three years, has during the past 12 months broken out in several distinct localities. 2. The disease has been limited to a small number of households, but the members of these households have suffered severely, children being especially attacked. 3. The spread of the* disease took place by personal communication, but no history was obtained of its having been originally introduced into any place by means of infection from a previous case. 4. In all the households attacked the inmates were living exposed to the influence of grave unsanitary conditions, and in almost all the localities the first case was a person who had possibly been exposed to the infection of scarlet fever or measles. 5. In some of the outbreaks a rash, somewhat resembling that of scarlet fever, and followed by peeling of the skin, was observed. Symptoms of diphtheritic paralysis followed several of the cases, including one in which a red rash had appeared. 6. Ho connexion was found with particular milk supplies, or with any concurrent diseases of the lower animals. 7. The action taken by the Rural Sanitary Authority for preventing the spread of infectious diseases has been defective as regards (a) the machinery for obtaining early information of infectious cases; (b) the provision of hospital accommodation for the isolation of such cases ; and (c) the remedying of sanitary defects found to exist in houses where disease has broken out. H. FRANKLIN PARSONS, M.D. November 23, 1889. RECOMMENDATIONS. 1. The Rural Sanitary Authority should use such means as they possess for securing early information of cases of infectious disease. Arrangements should be made with the registrars of births and deaths for sending to the Medical Officer of Health immediate notice of all deaths from infectious diseases, and each notice should give such particulars as will enable him to promptly investigate the case. The question of adopting the Infectious Diseases Notification Act, 1889, should be reconsidered. 2. The Authority should provide their district with accommodation for the isolation and treatment of cases of infectious disease, in accordance with the advice which they have already received from their Medical Officer of Health. Proper means for the disinfection of infected articles of clothing, bedding, &c., should also be provided. 3. The abatement of nuisances injurious or dangerous to health should be enforced, and steps should be taken to secure that any structural works required for the purpose are carried out in the most effectual way practicable to prevent recurrence of the nuisance.
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