[Report 1911] / Medical Officer of Health, Preston County Borough.

  • Preston (Lancashire, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1911
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1911] / Medical Officer of Health, Preston County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the sanitary position of the town during any selected year, and to compare the figures with those of any year, or any series of years, which may have preceded or followed the period in question. As far as possible, I have avoided unnecessary detail and useless repetition, and I have also refrained from re-printing the text of the various Orders, Letters, and Memoranda issued by the Local Government Board ; matters, which, together with other “ padding,” go to make the excellent Reports issued by many of my colleagues in other towns such bulky and imposing looking volumes. Although somewhat higher than that for the two exceptionally good years imme¬ diately preceding, the mortality for the past year of 1911 cannot be regarded as unsatisfactory, especially when it is remembered that, as a result of the census, the population upon which the calculations are based is actually lower than that for either of the two years referred to. The unusually fine warm weather and high temperature of the summer months had an adverse influence by increasing the amount of summer diarrhoea ; and, as will be shown later on, during the months of August and September a considerable number of infantile deaths were each week ascribed to this cause. Following the order in which the various diseases are inscribed on the weekly sheets of mortality, I deal first of all with Small Pox. No death resulted from this cause, although the town could not be said to have been entirely free from the disease. Cases were, from time to time, reported as occurring at the principal ports, and though the sanitary pre¬ cautions taken—forming the first line of defence—were, as a rule, sufficient to stamp out the infection, still in some instances the disease appeared to have passed the barrier, and afterwards made its appearance in some of the inland towns. Exemption from vaccination, which has now for some years been so frequently sought, and so easily obtained, has resulted in the production of a large number of children and young people who are unprotected, and susceptible to infection, and one cannot but consider, with grave anxiety, as to what may be the effect in any large town of a single case of Small Pox either wilfully concealed, or not recognised at an early stage. Of the three cases occurring in Preston during the year, the first—in April—was, perhaps, the most important, because some of the attendant circumstances were of a dangerous character. The patient,—a young man—resided with his family at a second¬ hand clothes shop, the nature of the business possibly accounting for the introduction of the disease, and certainly increasing the chances of extension. The business was closed, the house and contents disinfected, and the patient isolated and carefully watched. Fortunately, most members of the family had already been re-vaccinated, and this, together with the precautions adopted and thoroughly carried out, proved sufficient to prevent any further spread of infection.