[Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Paul U.D.C.

  • Paul (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Paul U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    [5] To put it in other words, the 34 more deaths that have taken place this year are in the main deaths that should have been prevented and may be prevented in future by proper action on the part of ourselves and other Sanitary Authorities. One half of this number (17) represent deaths from Scarlet Fever, which reached us owing to imperfect isolation elsewhere, and whose spread we were unable to prevent for want of isolation here. We have also one fatal case of Smallpox to chronicle. These with 5 deaths from Typhoid (as against 3 last year), and no less than 12 from Diarrhoea and Dysentery (as against 2 last year) together account for the difference in death-rates between 1892 and 1893. The marked incidence of Diarrhoea and Dysentery on Newlyn (9 deaths out of the 12) is a valuable finger-post to its present insanitary condition, while the outbreak of Typhoid there during the last 3 months of the year (10 cases) is synchronous with our •diminished efforts at scavenging and with the conversion of the harbour into an unscoured cesspool by the completion of the Northern arm of the pier. The Typhoid •outbreak at Mousehole, which occurred during September and October in the neighbour¬ hood of the Wesleyan Chapel and Gernick, I associate with the piling up of refuse heaps especially noticeable at that time. A record of 22 cases of Typhoid Fever, 2 cases •of Continued Fever, 2 of Diphtheria, 13 of Erysipelas, and 12 deaths from Diarrhoea and Dysentery—all in a population of less than 6000 within a year—is a serious reflection on the sanitary condition of our district. The Scarlatina Epidemic. The outbreak of Scarlatina has so lately been made the subject of a special and full report (Dec. 2nd, 1893) that I need do no more than outline some of its leading features here. The first case arose on Dec. 9th, 1892, the last for the year on Dec. 14th. 1893. (The Special Report included an account of all but this last). There were, during 1893, 273 cases and 17 deaths. The disease was attributed to infection from neighbouring districts and by boats arriving from Plymouth. By means of immediate visitation and isolation where possible, by disinfection of linen, and in some cases fumigation of houses, by instruction by printed “ Rules,” and by exclusion from schools ■of children from infected households a continuous resolute effort was made to limit the spread of the epidemic. But the isolation obtainable was in most cases very imperfect and the disinfection very incomplete, nor were our efforts to attain either at all generally assisted by the parents and friends of the sick. Our Rules were largely set at naught, and but little guard was put upon communication between the sick and the healthy. In a few cases occurring in connection with milk supply, owing to the ill- considered opposition of those concerned, some difficulty and regrettable delay arose in the severing of the connection between infected persons and houses on the one hand and milk in course of production, storage, and distribution on the other. This affords an additional reason for my urging on your Board the necessity of adopting the Infectious Diseases Prevention Act, 1890, and of giving effect to the Dairies, Cowsheds, and Milk- shops Order, 1885 and 1886. The Public Health Acts Amendment x\ct should also be adopted. Suggested Form for a Register of Infectious Diseases, and Notification to Schools thereof. The early cases of the epidemic were reported to the Head Masters of the Elementary Schools, the later ones to the School Attendance Officer. I am satisfied that