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6
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Bethnal Green, E.2.
11th April, 1932.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit herewith my third Annual
Report relative to the health of the Metropolitan Borough of
Bethnal Green.
The general death rate at all ages from all causes was
12.5, which shews a slight increase over the average for the
previous four or five years.
The Infant Mortality Rate for the year was 88 per 1,000
births, to approximate which we have to refer back to 1922,
when it was 90.2. Unemployment, straightened economic circumstances
with correspondingly lessened provision of the
necessities of life, overcrowding, and attempts to procure
abortion are interlinked factors which must indubitably have
had an adverse contributory influence on the successful rearing
of children. The reflex is seen in 47 deaths from diarrhoea and
55 from congenital debility and premature birth, which amount
to almost 70% of the total of 161.
The Maternity and Child Welfare Centre at Thornton
Hall was discontinued in September, and simultaneously an
improved centre was opened at St. Matthew's Hall, Hereford
Street. Two additional sessions are held, one for infant consultations
and the other for expectant and nursing mothers.
Correlated with this, in November, the Council appointed a
full-time Assistant Medical Officer, Dr. K. M. Horton, to
undertake the extra sessions and to replace certain part-time
medical officers holding consultations at the Cornwall Road
Centre.
There was a general decline in notifiable diseases except
in the case of Pneumonia, which contributed materially to the
Death Rate with 159 deaths out of a total of 1,368. The
number of cases of Small-pox was considerably less, there being
146 cases against 948 in 1930.
The Public Analyst's report shews a slight percentage
increase in the total number of adulterations found, but the
adulteration of milk reached the low figure of 3%, which is
the lowest figure recorded during the past seven years,