[Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Chesterfield Borough.

  • Chesterfield (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1905] / Medical Officer of Health, Chesterfield Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    INFECTIOUS DISEASES, Particulars are given in Table III. of the number of cases in each locality, the age periods of the patients and the number removed to each hospital. Particulars of the cases and deaths in recent vears are given in Table VIII. on page 18, It is the practice to remove, so far as allowed by those in charge of them, all the patients who are likely to spread infection if kept at home. The hospital accommodation is too small to permit of the removal of all infectious patients. Smallpox. — Houses infected 32, Oases 53, Deaths 1. I attribute the low mortality to the fact that all the patients were treated under red light. The fatal case is alluded to below. The first case reported was that of a child in St. Mary’s Gate, and inquiry into it led to the discovery of three in adjoining houses. The four were found to have a common origin in another wThich occurred three weeks earlier in a common lodging house. The patient in this case, who probably contracted the disease from a tramp who stayed at the house for one or more nights, was seen by a medical man, who diagnosed the complaint as cbickenpox. This mistake gave the disease three weeks start, during which time it was passed to the households mentioned, to several tramps, and to nine customers and others at two public houses. Most of the subsequent cases were traceable to the last, and probably all but two arose from them, directly or indirectly. Cases in connection with them occurred in Plasland, Staveley and Worksop, and probably also in Brimington and North Wingfield. The death which occurred was not recorded against the town, for the patient belonged to Deptford, contracted the disease at Worksop, and was ill with it when she entered Chesterfield. She presented herself for treatment at the out