These exact conditions stalked the camps and increased the misery. Quarantine was impractical in the crowded homes of the poor, so children mixed with others during scarlet fever, measles and other highly contagious childhood disease outbreaks, spreading it quicker. Cold added to mortality, as heating was expensive. In 1903, nearly a quarter of English infant deaths were from pneumonia, bronchitis and other lung ailments. They were susceptible due to malnourishment, which weakened resistance to infections.
Wood there is none.
Middle class social workers were always telling the poor to open their windows for ventilation, but their malnourished bodies and damp homes needed all the warmth they could get to keep chills away. It was common practice to wean children onto the same food as the family and this often contributed to malnutrition and mortality. Many were unwilling to be moved from home to hospital. Prejudice increased with mortality rates and patients were often rescued by angry mobs and taken home. The poor felt very uncomfortable in this situation and avoided treatment whenever they could.