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CONVALESCENT TREATMENT:
The Council has continued their arrangement with the Dedisham Convalescent
Home where two cots are retained and with Letchworth where four cots are retained.
The number of children admitted to these Homes during the year was 21. These cots
have been used to their fullest extent during the year and all the children who
have been sent there have benefited greatly in health. In addition, children are
referred for convalescence through the Invalid Children's Aid Association which
has dealt with 40 cases during the year.
The Council has made arrangements with the London Council of Social Service
whereby four beds are reserved at Grand Street House, Worplesdon Hill, Surrey,
where mothers and children can be sent away together. Under this scheme mothers
with one or more children under five are sent to this Home, usually for a three
weeks period. There were 14 mothers and 17 children admitted to this Home
during 1943. The Home has proved extremely useful and a certain number of
young mothers suffering from post natal debility have benefited markedly from
convalescence there.
FOSTER PARENTS: There wore no registered foster mothers in Finsbury during 1943.
INFANT DEATHS: There were 26 infant deaths in Finsbury during 1943 and the
mortality rate based on 1,000 .live births was 56. The neo-natal deaths, i.e.,
occurring within the first twenty-eight days, numbered 6, details of these deaths
are as follows:-
Asphyxia - 3
Meningeal Haemorrhage - 1
Prematurity - 1
Hydrocephalus - 1
Deaths of children from one month to one year. 20
Analysis of cases shows:-
Bronchitis - 2
Broncho-pneumonia - 3
Enteritis -7
Asphyxia - 1
Whooping Cough -2
Marasmus - 2
Meningitis - 1
Hydrocephalus - 1
Other Causes - 1
A small but gratifying improvement in the infant mortality figures is largely
due to a reduction in the number of deaths from pneumonia. Enteritis continues
as an important cause of death. Paediatricians have devoted considerable attention
to this subject recently and since breastfed babies are apparently unaffected by this
disease attention has turned recently to cows milk as a vehicle of infection. Some
think that some hitherto unsuspected virus which may resist pasteurisation is the
cause•