[Report 1917] / Medical Officer of Health, Gloucestershire County Council.

  • Gloucestershire (England). County Council. n 50061360.
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1917] / Medical Officer of Health, Gloucestershire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/46 (page 17)
    DIPHTHERIA. TABLE 7. 1917 1916 1915 1914 1913 1912 1911 1910 1909 1908 Cases 300 307 516 605 393 406 418 551 401 486 Deaths *> e Ot) 46 69 78 30 29 20 37 39 57 Hospital Cases 199 170 223 271 125 110 143 254 106 171 Case Fatality 11.0 15.0 13.4 12.9 7.9 7.1 4.8 6.7 9.7 11.7 Death-rate per 1000 .11 .15 .22 .24 .09 .09 .06 .11 .11 .17 England and Wales: Death-rate per 1000 .13 .14 .165 .16 .12 .12 .135 .12 .15 .16 The decrease in the prevalence of this disease was by no means so well marked, for the total number of cases (300) was little short of that in 1916 (307), about one-half the number in the years of greatest prevalence, namely, 632 in 1905, 648 in 1907 and 605 in 1914. In the urban districts the notifica- tions increased from 93 in 1916 to 144 in 1917, mainly due to unusual prevalence in Cheltenham M.B. where the maximum number of cases in any year—105—was notified; the previous maximum was 103 in 1914, followed by two years of compara- tively low prevalence. Dr. Garrett, the Medical Officer of Health for the Borough, says that “ the disease generally was “ not limited to any locality in particular but nearly every district in the town was affected.” There was a distinct outbreak in a school run in connection with the Roman Catholic Poor House towards the end of the year. No death was connected with this outbreak. The only rural districts in which over 20 cases were notified were East Dean with 31 cases and Stroud with 25 cases. Of the former it is said that “ the cases were of a spasmodic “ character but there were two small epidemics connected with “two schools; ” the disease was of a milder type than in 1916 when 56 cases were notified. In the Stroud R.D. '4 deaths occurred, a case fatality of 16 o/o, a high rate attributed to anti-toxin not being given till late in the disease. A peculiarly virulent little outbreak occurred in Todenham in the Campden R.D. where three out of six cases notified from six different families proved fatal.