[Report 1891] / Medical Officer of Health, Isle of Wight Rural District Council.

Isle of Wight (England). Rural District Council. n 83204987.

Date:: 1891

Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report 1891] / Medical Officer of Health, Isle of Wight Rural District Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Diphtheria and Membranous Croup. 16 # Blackwater. The disease developed shortly after the patients returned home after visiting Windsor and London. In De¬ cember a boy arrived home at Wootton, from school at Ryde, with scarlatina developing. It was notified in September that a case of scarlatina had occurred at Godshill Park in April. In July a case occurred at Lowtherville. A London servant con¬ valescent from scarlatina, had returned home, and frequently nursed the child who became affected. Of the 93 cases of scarlatina notified, with the exception of those at Parkhurst Prison, which is outside your jurisdiction, in no instance did the disease spread after notification, beyond the house in which it occurred, or, with few exceptions, in the house in which it occurred, notwithstanding that, in too many cases, the patient’s nurse cooked the food and was laundress and maid- of-all-work to the family. For examp]e, at Pan Cottages, one child’s case was notified on March 25th, and the other on 3 f arch 28th, and that of the mother who nursed them on April 4th ; but although there were children in other cottages under the same roof, the disease did not spread beyond the infected house. A house in the Undercliff, near Niton, was infected by diph¬ theria at the end of the year 1890 The second case, that of a young lady of 18, died on January 3rd, and her brother, aged 16, on January 21st. A sister, aged 14, became ill on January nth, and another sister on January 13th. On January 21st a case of diphtheria occurred in a family visiting Southlands, a large isolated house near Chale. They had, on January 10th, come from Wallington, near Croydon, where the disease prevailed, a member of the family having been attacked on December 8th, 1890. She was released from isolation before Christmas. Another case occurred in this family on January 25th, and an¬ other on February 21st. On March nth a boy of 5 J years, at¬ tending the Board Schools, at Wrcxall, was attacked by diph¬ theria, and died on March 20th. He lived at Span Cottages, a stone thatched house, with a foul midden privy, and an im¬ pure water supply from a dip well. On April ibth a Ventnor donkey boy of 14 returned to his home at the top of Castle Lane, Wroxall, ill with a bad throat. He died of diphtheria on April 27th. His two sisters were subsequently attacked, one on April 30th, the other on May 1st. Early in May other cases occurred in two families occupying adjoining cottages, belonging to the same owner. Diphtheria had more than once before broken out in these damp dilapidated dwellings, stand ing on the Gault, and with an impure water supply derived from a dip soak well, polluted from the surface and the soil, and with foul midden privies. On May 28th a girl of 18 be¬ came ill with diphtheria and died on June 7th, at Yarborough Terrace, Wroxall, a place also noted for its impure water sup¬ ply and bad drainage. At the time this patient was lying ill