London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Shoreditch 1906

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]

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10
More than half of these deaths from infectious disease were of children under five
years of age, and taking the total mortality amongst children under five years of age
from all causes, over 45 per cent. of the deaths resulted from these infectious diseases.
In the case of infants under one year, diarrhoea was the most fatal of these diseases,
whilst amongst children aged from one to five years, measles and whooping cough
claimed most victims. In both of these age groups tuberculosis was also a fruitful
cause of death. Consumption was the chief cause of the mortality between the 20
to 65 years' age periods.
Deaths from small-pox, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, including membranous
croup, whooping cough, enteric fever, and diarrhœa—the principal zymotic diseases
—numbered 365, the death-rate being 3.1 per 1,000 inhabitants, as compared with 2.8
in 1905, 3.2 in 1904, 2.8 in 1903, 3.6 in 1902, 2.9 in 1901, 3.1 in 1900, 3.6 in 1899, 4.1
in 1898, 4.2 in 1897, 4.3 in 1896, 3.8 in 1895, 2.8 in 1894, and 4.7 in 1893. A comparison
of the zymotic death-rates of London and Shoreditch and the eight wards
of the Borough is contained in Table VII. (Appendix). The zymotic death-rate was
lowest in Moorfields and highest in Wenlock and! Whitmore Wards.

The numbers of cases annually certified since 1889, and the attack-rates per 1,000 inhabitants are contained in the following table:—

Year.Number of cases.Attack-rate per 1,000 inhabitants.
189011589.4
18918627.0
1892147812.0
1893198716.2
189411049.0
189511579.4
1896147312.1
1897133110.9
18989607.8
189911169.2
19009898.1
190111469.8
1902123910.5
19036645.6
19047766.6
190511519.8
19069518.2

The cases of notifiable infectious disease certified in the metropolis numbered
35,343, the attack-rate being 7.5 per l,000 population.