[Report 1894] / Medical Officer of Health, Watford U.D.C.
- Watford (England). Urban District Council.
- Date:
- 1894
Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Credit: [Report 1894] / Medical Officer of Health, Watford U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.
4/8 page 4
![3rd—To inefficient disinfection of the dwellings, clothing, and bedding of those attacked by the disease. e.g., a case was traced to the following cause :— When the child was removed to hospital, the mother folded up the clothes it had been wearing and put them away safely in a drawer until the little wearer’s return. This failure to disinfect led to two fresh cases in the house, after the wearer of the clothes returned from hospital. One example will suffice :— The only means of disinfection at our disposal are 1. Fumigation of rooms and contents with sulphur. 2. Lime washing and re-papering of walls and ceilings. 3. Washing and boiling of infected linen. 4. Fresh air and sunlight. In many cases this is sufficient, but it is impossible always to carry out these measures satisfactorily. AVhat is urgently required is a steam disinfecting apparatus. 4th—Return hospital cases. No doubt in certain cases, infection was carried by the out-going patient from hospital—seeing the great difficulties under which your hospital staff worked, one cannot be surprised. During 1893, return cases were of not infrequent occurrence. During 1894, only two such cases occurred, and since you built the discharging ward at Holywell there has not been one return case. As exemplyfying the value of the Notification Act and prompt measures being taken on the out¬ break of this disease, I may mention that after March 28th, 1894, no cases occurred until May 10th, on which date six cases were reported from a cottage in Merton Road. On visiting the spot two baskets of washed and dressed linen were noticed in the front room, all ready to be sent home to their owners, who resided in a more wealthy part of the town. On a sofa in the same room, one of the fever-stricken children was lying. All these cases were at once removed into hospital, the house disinfected, and the linen in question boiled and re-washed before being sent home. The following table gives the total number of cases treated in the Joint Isolation Hospitals for the last four years :— 1891— Urban, 1 1 _ Rural, 4 | 1892— Urban, 25 1 Rural, 105 } “ 1893— Urban, 268 1 Rural, 135 ] 1894— Urban, 52 ) _ Rural, 41 j — Of all the cases treated in hospital during the year 1893, four died, giving a case mortality of 14-92 per 1000 cases. Of all the cases in your district treated at home in 1893, three died, giving a case mortality of 31-25 per 1000 cases. In 1894, of all cases treated in hospital, two died, giving a case mortality of 21-5 per 1000 cases. Of these two deaths, one was that of a postman, who was removed from Rickmansworth suffering from scarletina, complicated with double pneumonia, and who died within 48 hours of admission. The other occurred in a child, which developed diphtheria, after its removal into hospital. SMALL-POX. Only one case occurred during the year, as against 13 last year. The disease was evidently imported, for the patient, who removed from London to Watford on March 12th, wTas taken ill on March 26th, in the interim, had never left the prescincts of her house. The notification was received on Sunday, April 1st, at 3.30 p.m. Thanks to the energetic assist¬ ance of Mr. Baker, the patient was removed into hospital, and the infected quarters in process of dis¬ infection by 1 a.m. (mid-night). These measures, together with vigorous vaccination, every one who had had any personal communication with the lady being followed up and operated upon, were effectual in stamping out the disease.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30239886_0004.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
