London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Shoreditch 1910
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]
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they are the smallest number so far recorded for any year in respect to Shoreditch.
They amounted to 26.7 per cent, of the total number of deaths from all causes, as
compared with 30.8 for 1909 and 30.7 for 1908. As compared with the figures for
1909 the decrease was most marked as regards measles, whooping cough, tuberculosis,
especially consumption, diphtheria and diarrhoea. The deaths from consumption
and the other forms of tuberculosis amounted approximately to 47 per cent, of the
total number of deaths from infectious diseases, and of the remainder, measles, diarrhoea,
and whooping cough, in the order given accounted for the greater number.
The death rate from these infectious diseases was 4.5 per 1,000 inhabitants, as compared
with 5.9 in 1909, 5.4 in 1908, 6.5 in 1907, 6.7 in 1906, 6.2 in 1905, 6.8 in 1904,
and 6.5 in 1903. The death-rate for infectious diseases during 1910 is the lowest so
far recorded for Shoreditch.
In the subjoined table the deaths from the infectious diseases referred to above have been grouped according to age :—
| Age period. | Under 1 | 1-5 | 5-10 | 10-15 | 15-20 | 20-25 | 25-35 | 35-45 | 45-55 | 55-65 | 65-75 | 75-85 | 85 and upwards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. of deaths | 141 | 145 | 20 | 6 | 12 | 7 | 52 | 46 | 44 | 26 | 9 | 3 | .. |
It will be noticed that more than half of these deaths were of children under
the age of five years. Taking the total number of deaths of children under five
years of age from all causes, 35 per cent, resulted from the infectious diseases referred
to as compared with 43 per cent, in 1909, 40 per cent, in 1908, and 42 per cent, in
1907. In infants under one year, diarrhoea, measles, whooping cough, and tuberculosis
were the most fatal. Amongst children aged from one to five years, measles,
tuberculosis, and whooping cough claimed most victims. The chief cause of the
mortality from infectious diseases amongst persons aged from twenty to sixty-five
years was consumption.
The deaths from the principal zymotic diseases, namely, smallpox, measles,
scarlet fever, diphtheria, including membranous croup, whooping cough, enteric
fever, and diarrhoea numbered 217, the death-rate due to them, which is termed
the zymotic death-rate, being 1.9 per 1,000 inhabitants, as compared with 2.7 in
1909, 1.9 in 1908, 2.9 in 1907, 3.1 in 1906, 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. The zymotic death-rate, therefore, was
again markedly below the average. A comparison of the zymotic death-rates of
London and Shoreditch and the eight wards of the Borough is given in Table VII.