London-Area Typhoid Outbreak of 1937 [5min @0:50]

Why was there an outbreak of typhoid in a town that was among the first in the UK to adopt the Public Health Act of 1848? Typhoid fever is an infectious feverish disease with severe symptoms in the digestive system in the second phase of the illness. Classic typhoid fever is a serious disease. It can be life-threatening, lasts several weeks and convalescence takes some time. The disease is transmitted from human to human via food or drinking water, and it is therefore mainly hygiene and sanitary conditions that determine its spread. It is rarely seen in Europe today but 200 years ago would have been quite common. The typhoid outbreak in of 1937 in Croydon was actually one of three which followed the adoption of the principles set down by the Public Health Act of 1848. The act of 1848 provided for a Central Board of Health with powers to supervise street cleaning, refuse collection, water supply and sewerage disposal. Croydon was the first place to install an integrated water supply/sewage disposal system. Opened in 1851 by the Archbishop of Canterbury it was, according to Professor Nick Goddard of Anglia Ruskin University, hailed as a pioneering sanitary system with water pumped from a chalk aquifer to an enclosed reservoir. However, the death rate in the town actually increased and there was a typhoid outbreak in 1853 -- possibly because the new drainage/sewage system allowed the disease to spread more quickly. Then in 1875 there was a further outbreak in which 90 people died and this was blamed by some on the water supply. Indeed the problems that Croydon faced persuaded larger towns and cities, such as Manchester, not to update their water and sewage systems! Professor Nick Goddard believes that Croydon had problems because it was a 'pioneer'. The authorities made mistakes with the infrastructure -- the sewage pipes were too small and often got blocked -- and there were problems with the water supply. But it did set precedents and provided an example for other towns and cities to work with. "Making History" consulted Professor Nick Goddard of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge and spoke to 97-year-old Violetta Plackett, who remembers the 1937 typhoid outbreak.