[Report 1894] / Medical Officer of Health, Chatham Borough.

  • Chatham (Kent, England). Borough Council.
Date:
1894
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report 1894] / Medical Officer of Health, Chatham Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    as far as possible. The exceedingly small number of cases of this fever is worthy of notice, and speaks well for the sanitary condition of the district. It will be remembered that during 1893 several cases of Small Pox occured in the Borough, apparently introduced by a vagrant, and thence spreading to others. The prompt isolation of cases, and the re-vaccination of those persons who had been exposed to infection, soon checked the outbreak, and during 1894 only two cases have been re- ported, One of these was in the St. John’s District, and considering the circumstances, it is surprising that no other case occurred from it. The patient was a lad aged fifteen years, who was ill for three days before his removal to the hospital, during which time he visited a chemist who prescribed for him, but did not recognise the nature of the disease. He then applied to St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, where the true nature of his ailment was discovered, and immediately reported. He was promptly removed to St. William’s Hospital, and all the re- mainder of the family, nine in number, were re-vaccinated, kept at home, and the necessary measures of disinfection carried out, with the result that no second case occurred. The other case reported was in the Luton District, in a child of three years of age. This was also removed to the hospital, but was found to be chicken pox, and dis- charged. Of Erysipelas seventy.eight cases were notified. In my last report I made some remarks on the notification of this disease, and I regret that you have no power to expunge it from the list of notifiable diseases. Altogether two hundred and fifty cases were reported under the Infectious Diseases Notification Act, the bulk of them being due to Scarlatina or Erysipelas. There are some other diseases which are not notifiable, but which have been present in your district during the past year. First in order is Measles, which prevailed rather extensively during the first three months of the year, and led to the temporary closure of one of the Schools in the district, a measure which had a considerable effect in limiting the spread of infection. In all, eight deaths occured from this disease, the bulk of them being in St. John’s Ward.