[Report 1902] / Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich County Borough.

  • West Bromwich (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1902] / Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/44 (page 12)
    Infectious Di seases In this epidemic West Bromwich does not stand alone, but merely forms part of a large and thickly-populated aren over which scarlet fever has been prevalent for the whole period. To say nothing of the City of Birmingham,* with which we are not directly in contact, the districts of Handsworth, Smethwick, and Wednesbury have all been invaded similarly to ourselves. Thus in Handsworth there were in 1901 and 1902 no less than 625 cases in a population of 52,921, giving a case rate per 1,000 of 117 ; of these 328 were removed to the West Bromwich Isolation Hospital, 10 of which proved fatal, ii.e., 3 per cent.—an exceptional rate. Smethwick does not offer isolation facilities for scarlet fever, but during the two years there were notified no less than 1,033 cases in a population of 54,000, i.e., a case rate per 1,000 of 189, which is very nearly identical with our own. Wednesbury, which is in the same position, had during the same period 491 notifications in a population of 26,500, or a case rate per 1,000 of 186. My object in quoting these figures is in no sense to reflect upon others, whose views as regards isolation differ from our own, but at a time when the whole question of isolation for scarlet fever is one of much debate the com¬ parison of the figures affecting a population of 200,000 re¬ siding under similar climatic conditions, employed in very similar trades, and yet under different sanitary administrations, cannot but have a certain value. I do not presume to draw conclusions from these figures, being quite content as regards our own policy to appeal to the good work done by the staff of our Isolation Hospital and the exceedingly low death-rate among its inmates. The precautions to be taken as regards epidemic scarlet fever are by no means confined to Hospital Isolation ; every case is in the first instance visited by one of the Assistant Sanitary Inspectors and all particulars carefully recorded. Certificates of readiness for disinfection are left at each infected house, and when returned are promptly dealt with, the rooms being thoroughly treated with formalin. When *N.B.—In 1902 Birmingham had 5,030 cases of scarlet fever.