London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Finsbury 1949
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Finsbury Borough]
This page requires JavaScript
45
Hitherto Diphtheria has taken a heavy toll of life, or left in its
wake the lasting effects of its ravages.
The decline in Finsbury is shown by the following table :—
| Years | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1901 to 1940 | 1905 to 1909 | 1910 to 1914 | 1915 to 1919 | 1920 to 1924 | 1925 to 1929 | 1930 to 1934 | 1935 to 1939 | 1940 to 1944 | 1945 to 1948 | |
| 187 | 137 | 132 | 130 | 263 | 191 | 212 | 116 | 23 | 6.5 | Average number of cases per year. |
| 19 | 15 | 15 | 18 | 34 | 26 | 32 | 19 | 7 | 2 | Average annual rate per ten thousand of the total population. |
| 25 | 18 | 13.5 | 10 | 23 | 6 | 8 | 2.4 | 1 | 0.25 | Average number of deaths per year. |
| 2.4 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 3.0 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 0.4 | 0.3 | less than 0.1 | Averageannual death rate per ten thousand of the total population. |
The immunization of infants was commenced in Finsbury in the
year 1928 but was only carried out sporadically until 1934 when
serious attention began to be given to its extensive use.
A substantial proportion of children had already been protected
by 1939. In the early years of the war propaganda to secure immunization
of all infants was conducted on a national basis and was
pressed very intensively in this Borough. Thus there is good reason
to attribute the happy results to this procedure. From the table
given it is clear that the reduction in the mortality and the incidence
began to occur between 1935 and 1939, and has continued even more
rapidly since 1940. This is more clearly shown in the next table
where the numbers of cases and of deaths are given for each year since
1935. No rates are given because of the uncertainties with regard
to the total population in the years since 1939.