[Report 1899] / Medical Officer of Health, Brighouse Borough.

  • Brighouse (England). Council. nb2008024084.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

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

Credit: [Report 1899] / Medical Officer of Health, Brighouse Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    22/60 (page 20)
    In making up my death returns under the various sections I have included in my Zymotic death list the number of those who have died in the Clifton Hospital—belonging to this Borough—with the addition of these the rate under such heading only reaches 0*96 per 1,000 of the population per annum. It may be of interest to some to compare the monthly notifications of Scarlet Fever in the years 1898-1899 : Jan. Feb Mar. A.pr. May June July Aug. Sep. Oct Nov. Dec 1898 5 10 8 4 7 14 4 9 8 4 5 8 1899 19 4 22 32 23 24 19 12 7 12 18 3 Distribution of Scarlet Fever cases as regards the number of houses infected, arranged in Wards : West, 37 Central, 26 Bonegate, 20 Hove Edge, 12 Calder, 14 North, 15 East, I] South, 5 The great number of Scarlet Fever cases occurring during the year, as is easily to be understood, threw a great deal of extra work on the Sanitary officials. The Sanitary Inspector invariably made it his rule to be present whenever possible at the removal of a patient to the Hospital, in order that he might see that articles of clothing, curtains, and bed linen w^ere promptly dispatched to the disinfecting apparatus at the Hospital. Houses or rooms w^ere disinfected as soon as possible after such removal, and I may here say that any day came alike to him when necessity arose. When it was thought advisable to take a patient away from his home on a Sunday, the disinfecting process was not put off until the Monday. In this illness “ The better the day, the better the deed ” w^as well illustrated, and I must add that great credit is due to your Inspector for carrying out all this extra wmrk with such cheerfulness and alacrity. Enteric, or Typhoid Fever, has only been brought to my notice 17 times, as compared with 21 in 1898, 21 also in 1897, 3^ in 1896, and 25 in 1895. The one disease more specially than any other, due to bad drainage, impure water supply, or contaminated milk, is Enteric Fever, and I am able to state that in none of the cases reported has the water or milk been at fault, and in only one house did more than one case occur. At this particular house, the drainage w^as very faulty, though the owner had in years gone by been at great expense in having everything put into proper order as he concluded. Some of the cases were very mild indeed, and of the wdrole number, ii were removed to the Hospital, two of wdiich died, but not from this disease. One had been suffering from Pneumonia of both lungs previous to admission, and from this complaint he never rallied, whilst the other w^as affected with an affection of the Kidneys of previous long standing. In all the cases in which I found unsatisfactory drainage, or other imperfections, which undoubtly accelerated if they did not actuallv cause these illnesses, the owners of the property in question were only too will- ing to remedy such, according to my suggestions. d here were two deaths from Enteric Fever in 1899.