Mr. W. H. Power's report to the local government board on diphtheria at Hern Hill, in the Faversham rural sanitary district ; on the sanitary state of that district ; and on administration by the rural sanitary district.
- Power, W. H.
- Date:
- 1880
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Mr. W. H. Power's report to the local government board on diphtheria at Hern Hill, in the Faversham rural sanitary district ; on the sanitary state of that district ; and on administration by the rural sanitary district. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![afterwards infected, and in tlie course of ISTovember and December the epidemic extended to six other families in different parts of the parish. In addition to these, there were five families, in each of which there occurred more than one case of sore throat of a suspicious character, but not definitely diphtheritic, though apparently in connexion with the prevailing epidemic of genuine diphtheria. 4. Including all, 15 families were invaded. These comprised 93 members, of whom 53 were attac&d with throat affection more or less severe. Five cases ended fatally. In 12 out of the 15 families that suffered, the persons first affected were children attend- ing Lurgashall school. Of the remaining three, two had children at school, but in one case the mother, and in another a child, not attending school, was the first to take the disease. Lastly, only one family, that had no children at school, was attacked, and this was next door to a honse in whicli four children were ill. 5. The school, which had been open all through October and November, was closed on December 2nd ; and after that date only one fresh family was attacked, though new cases continued to appear in some of the families that had been previously infected. 6. Radiating from the school the disease extended to widely separate parts of the parish of Lurgashall, among which there was no community of domestic conditions, such as milk, water, &c., which could be suspected of being concerned in the spread of the infection. There was no knowledge of any disease prevalent among cattle, sheep, geese, poultry, or other animals. Personal communication alone appears to have been the agency by which the infection was transmitted from person to person; and the as- semblage of children at the village school afforded a ready means of its transmission from family to family. 7. This outbreak had, before my visit, been carefully inquired into by Dr. Charles Kelly, Medical Officer of Health for the West Sussex combined district. Dr. Kelly’s frequent experience of diphtheria, and especially of its remarkably unequal incidence upon different parts of his extensive district, gives particular value to his obser- vations. The predilection that diphtheria shows for wet clayey tracts as contrasted with sandy tracts ; the habitual re-appearance of the disease in the autumn, its apparent preferential incidence on families that have shown a liability to throat affections; and especially on children w^ho have long distances to walk to and from school; these are points illustrated or suggested by Dr. Kelly’s experience and deserving of systematic study. DUNMOW. [Registrau-Genekal’s Quarterly Return, 1879, Fourth quarter.—District, Dunmow; Sub-district, Stebbing. Four deaths from diphtheria. (Registrar’s note, “ The “ four deaths from diphtheria occurred in one family.”)] 1. This proved to be a very limited outbreak of diphtheria, commencing early in September 1872, at a small private school in the village of Felstead, three miles east of Great Dunmow, and extending in one family to other members who did not attend the school. The situation of the village is high and bleak. The soil is clay, irregularly covered with gravel. There had been no diphtheria in the neighbourhood for more than a year. The last preceding cases occurred in the spring of 1878 at Lit. Bardfield, about six miles to the north. The weather was fine before and at the commencement of the epidemic. There was nothing to suggest any climatic influence as the cause. 2. The little school above mentioned had only nine scholars, belonging to eight families in the village. School re-opened after the harvest holidays on September 8th. On that day all the children were present, except one, Jane Snell, who was staying with friends at Forest Gate, near London. She returned next day, September 9th. On September 12th she complained of feeling ill, and stayed away from school. On the 15th she was seen by a medical man, and was found to have diphtheria. On the same day the same medical man saw another of the school children, named Maud Weaver, and found that she was suffering with the same disease. She had been ill two days. 3. On the 18th a third case occurred in another girl attending the school, named Helen Taylor, one of a family of six children, living at a farm house in the village. The school was closed next day. Helen Taylor recovered, but four of her brotlfers and sisters were successively attacked at intervals of a few days, and died, all four, within three weeks. A cousin staying in the same house w*as also attacked, but recovered. Q 2350. B](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2499683x_0021.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
