[Report 1896] / Medical Officer of Health, St Albans Urban Sanitary District & Rural Sanitary District.

  • St. Albans (England). Urban Sanitary District.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1896] / Medical Officer of Health, St Albans Urban Sanitary District & Rural Sanitary District. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    on October 30th and the last on November 10th. Four of these cases occurred in one house, in which, on inves¬ tigation, the sanitary conditions were found to be very bad. Two of these cases were fatal directly or indirectly, and I understand there has been a third death amongst them since the beginning of 1897. The insanitary con¬ ditions referred to have been rectified, and two of the wells, which were found on analysis to be polluted, have been closed. The other cases of Enteric Fever, with the exception of i case at Bricket Wood, where the water was found on Analysis to be contaminated by organic matter, were not associated with any special insanitary conditions, and at least two of them seem to have been imported Three cases of Diphtheria were notified. One at Roestock, St. Peter’s, and 1 in Sandridge New Town. (Two cases of Scarlet Fever were notified from the same house immediately afterwards, so that this case which proved fatal was probably in reality one of Scarlet Fever) ; another case of Diphtheria occurred in August at Tytten- hanger Green. It is worthy of note that there was no case of Infectious Disease notified to me from the parish of Redbourn during the year 1 896. There was a certain amount of Measles in various parts of the district in the early part of the year, and one death occurred from this cause at Colney Heath St. Peter’s parish in February. A good deal of Whooping Cough occurred in various parts of the district in the Spring and again in the Autumn. Four deaths were due to this disease, one in March in St. Peter’s, one in August in Redbourn, one in October in Wheathampstead, and one in November in Redbourn, all infants under one year of age. Let me urge you once more to include Measles and Whooping Cough in the list of Diseases notifiable under the Infectious Diseases (Notification) Act, and so do something to save the lives of these poor little ones so many of whom are cruelly cut off on the very threshold of life. I should be very much obliged if my professional brethren in the District would send me the notifications as soon as their diagnosis is made, and it would also be a