London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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City of Westminster 1924

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Westminster, City of]

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Weekly Incidence.

-January.February.March.April.May.
Week123412341234123412
Per cent1.97.41.53.04.33.95.58.27.216.515.313.23.82.81.82.00.90.2
Monthly percentage13.821.952.810.411

Deaths..25 of the cases proved fatal (10 males and 15 females) ;
1 death occurred in February, 15 in March, 4 in April and the others
subsequently.
Three other children died, 2 from whooping cough and one from
diphtheria, which supervened.

With the exception of a man of 65, the deaths were confined to children under 6 years of age. These were divided thus :.

-Under 1.1-2.2-3.3-4.4-5.5-6.Totals.
Males522---9
Females45212115
Totals97412124

While the attack rate was 15 and 69 per 1,000 children living at ages
under 1 and 1 to 5, the fatality was 37 per cent, of those attacked under
1 year of age and 4.47 of those attacked between 1 and 5 years. On the
estimated number of children living under 5 years of age the death rate
would be 3.2 per 1,000 (males 2.9, females 3.48). Under 1, the mortality
was 5.5 per 1,000 births, among children of 1 to 5, 3.0 (in this group the
death-rate is estimated at 4.1 per 1,000 living between 1 and 2 years of
age and 2.4 per 1,000 living between 2 and 5 years).
For the whole population of Westminster, the death rate was 0.14,
for London 0.29 and for England and Wales 0.12 per 1,000. In the
following Table is shown the average death-rates at three groups of ages
in sets of years since 1901 :-
Under 1.
1-5.
5-15.
1901- 5 3.40 3.47 0.05
1906-10 1.63 2.19 0.02
1911-15 1.98 2.70 0.12
1916-20 1.87 1.35 0.08
1921-24 1.52 1.25 0.03
On these averages an improvement is shown at each period, especially
in children under 5 years of age.