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PUERPERAL FEVER.
Ten cases of this complication of childbirth were
reported during the year. Six of the patients were
removed to the London Hospital, one to Bethnal Green
Hospital, and one to the City of London Maternity
Hospital. Two of the patients died from the disease,
and a third one died from another cause. Puerperal
Fever was fully discussed in my Annual Report for
1920.
OPHTHALMIA NEONATORUM.
Thirty-eight cases of purulent eye-discharge in the
newborn were notified to me, 37 by doctors and one
by a midwife. In one case the infant died from another
cause, but in the remaining cases the condition was
cured without any apparent impairment of vision.
Several of the worst cases were removed to a Hospital,
and 23 cases received nursing attention at home from
the Shoreditch and Bethnal Green District Nursing
Association, the Borough Council paying part of the
cost. Six hundred and seventy-one visits were paid
by nurses of the Association, many of the cases requiring
visiting for many weeks, and often more than once
in a day.
INFANTILE MORTALITY.
295 deaths of Bethnal Green infants under one
year of age took place during the year. This is equal
to a rate of infantile mortality of 98.2 per 1,000 births.
Comparison with previous years is as follows:—
1916 106.0
1917 112.0
1918 123.0
1919 85.0
1920 95.0