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POP 53
Public Health Department,
Poplar Town Hall,Bow Road,E.3.
15th July, 1928.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar.
Sir, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have much pleasure in presenting my Annual Report for the
year 1947, which, in accordance with the Ministry of Health Circular
170???/47 is prepared on the lines of that for 1946 and is an Abridged
Interim Report.
POPULATION. The Registrar-General's estimate of the civil population is
73,490, an increase over the previous year's figure (69,010).
BIRTHS. There was an increase in the number of live births and the
birth rate (26.7) is the highest recorded for the Borough since 1921.
STILL BIRTHS. The number of still births shows a slight incrcase over
that for 1946, the rate per 1,000 total births being 24.8 as compared
with 23.1 in 1946.
DEATHS. The number of deaths at all ages was 994, and the death rate
13.5 as compared with 13.1 for 1946. The death rate for London as a
whole was 12.8.
Since 1946 approximately one-sixth of the Poplar deaths were
of persons over 80 years of age.
Six deaths occurred from Whooping Cough; 2 from Diphtheria
(in neither of these had the child been immunised) and 2 from Measles.
All these deaths were of children under 5 years of age.
There wore no deaths from Scarlet Fever.
MATERNAL MORTALITY. Only one maternal death was recorded during the
year.
INFANT MORTALITY. After the record figure of 30 in 1946 (the lowest
ever recorded in the Borough) it is disappointing to find the figure for
1947 as high as 40. This is just below the figure of 41 for England
and Wales, but is higher than the London rate of 37. Factors in this
increased rate of 40 were a higher proportion of deaths due to prematurity
(27% in 1947 as compared with 17% in 1946) and an increase in deaths from
non-tuberculous respiratory diseases (29:.5% in 1947 as compared, with
20.7% in 1946). The proportion of infantile deaths due to congenital
malformations, etc., fell from 28.3% in 1946 to 20.5$ in 1947.
INFECTIOUS DISEASE. The most noticeable thing is the increase during
the year of the number of cases of Whooping Cough which totalled some 406
over the number for the previous year. There was, however, a considerable
drop in the number of cases of Measles and the Scabies cases were
253 as compared with 484 in the previous year.
Only 10 cases of Diphtheria occurred in the year, 9 of them being in nonimmunised
children.
TUBERCULOSIS. The figures for Tuberculosis are not very different from
those of 1946 and the deaths from both respiratory and non-respiratory
forms remain much the same.
INFANTILE PARALYSIS. The Borough escaped relatively lightly during the
epidemic of infantile paralysis and only nine definite cases were
confirmed; one death occurred, but was assigned to causes other than
poliomyelitis.