View report page

-1-
Town Hall,
Kensington, W.8.
1st August, 1945.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Royal Borough of Kensington.
I have the honour to submit my annual report on
the state of the Public Health in Kensington in 1944. There
are several features which will be gratifying to the
Council.
Diphtheria Immunisation.
The Council introduced their scheme for diphtheria
immunisation in the year 1934, and in the five years
preceding the average annual number of cases of diphtheria
was 317, and the average annual number of deaths was 16. The
Council have, year by year, done much to encourage parents to
have their children protected against diphtheria; most
attention has been devoted to children at about one year of
age, but immunisation has been advocated for all children up
to the age of twelve years. The percentage of the children
protected is gradually increasing; and the following table
shows the position year by year since the scheme was introduced.
Year
No. of diphtheria
cases notified.
No. of deaths
from diphtheria
1935 367 19
1936 142 11
1937 193 4
1938 177 8
1939 102 3
1940 54 4
1941 86 2
1942 78 1
1943 54 1
1944 29 -
This table is more eloquent than words.
Furthermore, not one child immunised by the Council since 1934
has died from diphtheria.
Infant Death Rate.
No figure in my annual reports over the last twentyfive
years has aroused the Council's interest and attention
more than this. At the commencement of the century, the
infant death rate varied around 150; that is to say, of every
thousand children born, 150 died before reaching the age of
twelve months. In 1919 (the year after the last war) the
figure was 102; in 1938 (the year before this war) it was 78;
in 1943 it was 52 and in 1944 it was 52. The last two years
constitute a record for the borough and they are better than
the figures for London as a whole.
The diseases which killed so many in days gone by,
attacked many others and, whilst not killing them, interfered
with their development into healthy and strong citizens.
Looking closely into the bald death rate figures, the Council
will be pleased to see that they reflect a great reduction in