[Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Bedford (Union) R.D.C.
- Bedford (England). Rural District Council.
- Date:
- 1893
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Bedford (Union) R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Small-pox.—Two notifications, two removals to hospital, no death. If I cherished the hope that Small-pox was verging to extinction in Great Britain, it has been rudely dispelled during the past year, both by my own experience and by the returns whicli have reached me weekly from tlie Local Government Board. The latter inform me that Small-pox is still very prevalent in some of our larger towns, the number of fresh cases notified every week, though diminished, is still something like 200, and to these may probably be added others from Rural Districts whose returns are not tabulated. My own experience has been so largely refreshed, and the fading memories of former years have been so far revived, that I am not apprehensive lest the grim sym])toms and indications of Small-pox will be lost upon me for some years to come. Two cases occurred in the Parish of Milton Ernest, and were removed to the Bedford Small-pox Hospital; the disease was of a modified type in both, and both recovered; the first patient was believed to have contracted the disease at St. Albans. Scarlatina.—151 notifications, 7 removals to hospital, 5 deaths, one in the Bedford Fever Hospital. The proportion of deaths to notifications will shew at once that the disease, though rather general, has been of a somewhat mild type. It has been most prevalent in the Bedford and Kempston District and also in the Sharnbrook District; the parishes of AVootton, Clapham, and Knotting have been more particularly affectiid. The number of removals to Isolation Hospital have been undoubtedly small, this has been principally due to the reluctance of parents to avail themselves of the advantages of the Institution, hut it must at the same time be admitted that our provision for removal is not yet placed upon a satisfactory basis. AVhat is wanted, more especially for Scarlatina cases, is a house sufficiently isolated to whicli three or four young children of an affected family can be moved simultaneously, or almost simultaneously; in moat of the cases little in the way of treatment would he required, a centre of infection—possibly the first—^would he obliterated, and isolation could be effectually carried out at very little cost, but the expenses of the present arrangements, if carried out in this manner, would be enormous, eight weeks being very generally the period of sojourn at the Fever Hospital, which at 30s. per week may run to £12 per case, and it has occasionally done so. Make what provision we may it appears to me that by far the majority of the cases will he detained at home, but nevertheless every removal of the infected members of a family does appreciably diminish the risk of contagion, and I have on many occasions realised the advantage, more especially when the family has happened to he the first, or one of the first, affected in the village or parish. Diphtheria.—Ten notifications, no removals to Hospital, 3 deaths. AAe have fortunately experienced no outbreak at all comparable in severity with that which occurred at Bolnhurst in 1891 and 1892. Of the cases 6 were notified in the Bedford and Kempston District, and 2 deaths occurred at AA^ootton in portions of the parish widely separated from each other; there was also a fatal case at Harrowden. Kone of these cases could be traced to any local sanitary defect, and by far the majority of them were single cases in a family. Enteric (or Typhoid) Fever.—Eleven notifications, 4 removals to Hospital, 2 deaths, one at the Fever Hospital. The subject of Enteric Fever is one that always requires to be handled with considerable care, this disease being generally supposed to be more intimately connected with local sanitary defects than any other which comes ordinarily under our observation. Indeed this view Avould appear to be borne out to some extent by a comparison of the number of cases notified in the Rural District, and those notified in the Borough of Bedford, the latter having a considerably larger population, but the numbers are too small and the Notification Act has not been sufficiently long in operation for any regular statistical statement. One case occurred in the Bedford and Cardington District (at Elstow), the patient was removed to the Fever Hospital and recovered ; three in the Barford District, two of them at Roxton (husband and wife), contagion being the apparent cause of the second case; three in the Harrold District, two of them at Felmersham (brother and sister), in this case the disease was evidently imported; one at Harrold, this Avas a nurse from London who had been nursing Typhoid patient, she was removed to the Fever Hospital; one at Risely, a boy, who was also removed to Fever Hospital; three in the Sharnbrook District, one of them fatal. These last cases occurred at Thurleigh, two of them Avere brother and sister, the other patient was a near neighbour. There was also a fatal case at the Fever Hospital, the patient being a young girl, member of a family at Kempston NeAv Town, in AA’hich several cases occurred last year; this case Avas notified in 1892. In looking through this record, fortunately not a very serious one Avhen the extent of the District is considered, there are tAvo circumstances Avhich strike me Avith more or less of force; these are, firstly the evidence of contagion as shoAvn by the extension of the disease from husband to wife, from brother to sister, from patient to nurse, and secondly the grave probability that some contamination of the Avater supply may j be at the root of such cases as have sprung up Avithout apparent intercourse Avith affected persons. Other diseases do not call for particular notice. As u.sual in former years I have visited all parts of the District at some time during the year. On some occasions I have visited for purposes of Inspection, Aidien I have been either met or accompanied by the Sanitary Inspector; on other and perhaps more frequent occasions my visits have been required in consequence of the occurrence of infectious disease, some visits have also been required in connexion Avith the Factories and Workshops Acts Avliich Avill probably entail additional duties in the future. The question of improvement of the Avater supply, a question of no little importance in some of our villages, has constantly occupied my mind, connected as it is Avith the improvement of dwellings and the acquisition of additional external space, but alas! as I Avrite, my mind resorts to Avhat is going on in one or tAvo of the suburban villages of Bedford, Avhere roAvs, if not courts, of houses are springing up under conditions very suitable perhaps to a seAvered toAvn, and quite capable of being rendered healthy dAvellings in a place where scavenging, seAverage, and juire Avater supply are accessible, but utterly unsuitable to an agricultural village. In a perfectly well ordered village I am in the habit of thinking that three houses in a block, or in a roAv, are as many as ought to stand together, that is to say of course Avhere there is no system of seAverage, but I knoAv of no laAv that can prevent the formation of neAv roAvs and courts, and undoubtedly, as building ground becomes more valuable, they Avill continue to spring up, and to bring the village by degrees to that](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28913024_0004.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
