[Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Chorley Borough.

  • Chorley (England). Borough Council
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Chorley Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/20 (page 13)
    the Borough during the year. In the Finnington Hospital ten (10) beds are reserved for the use of patients suffering from Smallpox residing in the district comprised under the Chorley Joint Hospital Board, and I consider ample provision is made for the prevention of the spread of the disease from isolated cases which might be brought into the Borough at any time. Scarlet Fever has been much less prevalent during the year than for many years previousl3^ Only fifty-one (51) cases were notified during the year, as compared with one hundred and seventy-nine (179) in 1904, two hundred and fourteen (214) in 1903, one hundred and fifty- six (156) in 1902, and ninety (90) in 1901. The cases were notified in each month throughout the year, but, with the exception of September, in no month were there more than five cases reported to me. I have reason to believe that in some instances Scarlet Fever has occurred and neither the Parents nor Medical Attendant have notified to me. If this neglect to report has occurred it is no wonder that the disease cannot be more thoroughly kept under control, and it can not be too widely known that not only the Medical Practitioner attending the case but also the Parents or Guardians of children suffering from Infectious Diseases are required by the “Infectious Diseases Prevention Act” to notify the occurrence of every case under a penalty for not complying with such regulation. A very few cases not reported, and in whose houses sufficient isolation or keeping other children from attending school has not been enforced, are quite sufficient to keep up the constant presence of the disease, and to this I attribute that sporadic cases have occurred during every month of this and several preceding years. Forty-nine (49) of the cases were sent to the Infectious Hospital. In the two instances left at home it was considered that sufficient isolation could be maintained there. No Death occurred amongst the patients removed from Chorley to the Hospital from this Disease, and one of the cases treated at home died. Return cases have been very much fewer this year than in the previous year; and in every case before dismissing a patient from the Hospital I have endeavoured to make as certain as possible that no [13]