[Report 1914] / Medical Officer of Health, Sheffield City.

Sheffield (England). City Council.

Date:: 1914

Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1914] / Medical Officer of Health, Sheffield City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Measles. Scarlet fever. Diphtheria. Whooping Cough. Typhoid Fever. Diarrhoea and Enteritis under two years of age. A high death-rate from Measles has to be recorded again, the death-rate being 0 -77 as compared with 0 -77 for 1913, and 0 -65 for the decade, 1904—13. At the opening of the year 1913, a Measles epidemic was at its height, and at the opening of 1914, Measles was again somewhat prevalent and became actually epidemic during March, April, May, June and July. The interval between the last two epidemics was, therefore, unusually short. In my Annual Report for 1913, attention was drawn to the altered behaviour of Measles. From 1894 to 1903, the death-rate from Measles was fairly constant, year by year. From 1903 to 1911, a high and a low death-rate alternately was the tendency, with an interval between the epidemics of about 18 months. Since 1911, the tendency has been for the death-rate to be more constant, year by year, and for the intervals between the epidemics to be shorter. The death-rate from Scarlet Fever was 0-19 per 1,000 of the population, which has to be compared with 0 -16 for 1913, and an average of 0-18 for the decade, 1904—1913. The attack-rate was 6-5 per 1,000. The average attack-rate for the decade, 1904—1913, was 5 -5 per 1,000 persons living per annum. The history of Scarlet Fever in Sheffield has been in recent years something as follows. The mortality from this disease was low in 1894 and 1895, and high in 1896 and 1897. There was a decline in 1898 and a rise again in 1899. It remained low from 1900 to 1902, and then became high during the five years 1903—1907, the climax being reached in 1906 when the death- rate was 0 -53. During the five years 1908—1912 the mortality from this disease was less than in any of the years mentioned above, and during 1913 and 1914, it has again become more fatal but not nearly so fatal as during the period 1903-7, when the death-rates were as follows :—1903, 0 -24 ; 1904, 0 -21 ; 1905, 0 -23 ; 1906, 0 -53 ; 1907, 0 -23. The death-rate from Diphtheria was 0-14 per 1,000 of the population. This rate is the highest since 1907 and is higher than the average for the previous 10 years by 0 -03. The number of cases of sickness reported during 1914 was 850, which is the highest number since the year 1902, and is 350 above the average of the previous 10 years. Some of the increase in cases reported during recent years is due to the more accurate diagnosis of slight attacks as a result of an increasing use of the bacteriological facilities provided through the University. The mortality from this disease was at the rate of 0 -50 per 1,000 living, which is 0 -35 higher than that for 1913, and 0-18 higher than the average for the previous 10 years. The death-rate for 1914 was 0 -06 per 1,000 which ranks with those for 1913 and 1910, as the lowest on record. The number of Typhoid cases notified during the year was 113, which compares with 74 for the previous year and with the exception of 1913, is the smallest number on record. The death-rate under two years from Diarrhoea and Enteritis during 1914, was 1 -1 per 1,000 living. This has to be compared with l -0 for 1913, 0-42 for 1912, and 1 -32 for 1911. Seeing that the summer of 1914 wras hotter than that of 1913 there is some satisfaction in the fact that the death-rate from Diarrhoea and Enteritis was not appreciably higher in 1914 than 1913. The temperature of the ground at 4 feet below the surface during 1914, remained for 9 weeks over 56°, whereas, during 1913, it never reached 56°.