[Report 1904] / Medical Officer of Health, Warwickshire County Council.

  • Warwickshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1904] / Medical Officer of Health, Warwickshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    15. Smallpox.—Again, for the second time in succession, many of the districts have suffered from out¬ breaks of this disease. Altogether 73 cases have been notified. 16. In the Urban districts the cases were comparatively few, namely six, occuring as follows :—3 in Aston Manor, 2 in Nuneaton, and 1 at Rugby. 17. In the Rural districts the visitation was much more severe, though in only two of them did the number of cases exceed ten. The districts affected were : Atherstone, 9 ; Foleshill, 6 ; Meriden, 2 ; Nuneaton, 27 ; Rugby, 8; Solihull, 1 ; and Southam, 14. 18. These 67 cases may practically be divided into two epidemics, one which occurred at Arley in the Nuneaton Rural District in the month of March, and from which cases spread to the surrounding districts of Nuneaton Urban, Atherstone, Foleshill and Meriden. The other occurred in Southam, where 14 cases were reported, all of them being stated by the- Medical Officer of Health to be traceable in the first instance to a tramp who lodged for a single night in the common lodging house in Southam. Full details of these outbreaks appear in the summaries of the reports of the District Medical Officers of Health. 19. Referring to the first epidemic, the one which originated in the Nuneaton Rural District, this was caused by miners coming from Nottingham to work at the new colliery sinkings, and owing to the fact that the disease was of such a mild type, there was great difficulty in getting the miners to take proper precautions in the way of isolation. I gave a full report at the time as to the results of my investi¬ gations into this outbreak, and the only point I would refer to now is the fact that although 27 cases occurred in the small Nuneaton district, not a single death resulted, though some of the cases were comparatively severe, and many of them occurred in un-vaccinated children. 20. In addition to these, a few sporadic cases occurred, notably in Rugby and Aston Manor. Here two cases were imported from Blackpool. 21. It is very satisfactory to be able to state here that the whole of the cases were removed to hospital, though difficulties occurred in many instances owing to the unpreparedness of some of the authorities to deal with early cases, and I am of opinion that much credit is due to the various sanitary staffs con¬ cerned for the promptitude they showed in meeting their obvious difficulties and thus keeping the epidemics within bounds. 22. It is worthy perhaps of record in connection with this matter to remind your Committee that a very important Conference was called by the London County Council to discuss the spread of Small¬ pox and other diseases by tramps, and many important and far-reaching resolutions were passed, which have been referred to a Committee for the purpose of dealing with them as far as is practicable. It is a sign of the times, however, I think, to note that public attention has been called with some degree of force to the fact that the tramp is not only a social pest, but a real danger to the welfare of those communities which suffer from his presence. 23. Measles.—It is a matter for great congratulation that the death-rate from this disease has been extremely low. It is interesting to note as a fact that this has been so for three consecutive years, though in 1904 the low water mark was reached, only 45 deaths being registered from it as compared with 86 and 57 in the two previous years. Of the 45 deaths, 26 occurred in the Urban and 19 in the Rural districts, so that allowing for the difference of population there was practically no more mor¬ tality in the Urban than in the Rural districts. 24. I have previously pointed out that Measles is one of the most important diseases in raising the Zymotic death-rate, and that most of its victims are children under five years of age. In connection with this matter I also desire to call attention to some very important observations and remarks by Dr. Newsholme, the Medical Officer of Health for Brighton in his Annual Report for 1904, where Measles had been very prevalent. He shows that Measles becomes epidemic every second or third year, but that more severe epidemics occur at periods of somewhere about seven years.