London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Dagenham 1942
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Dagenham]
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38
There were 40 cases in which a medical aid notice
was sent by a midwife to a medical practitioner on account
of some eye condition occurring in a newly-born infant.
All these cases were visited by the Medical Officer of
Health and a Health Visitor. Of the total cases investigated,
only seven were notified as suffering from true
Ophthalmia Neonatorum.
Maternal Mortality.
Two maternal deaths were assigned to this district,
which give a maternal mortality rate of 1.03 per thousand
births. This is a remarkably low figure; that for
England and Wales for the corresponding period was
2.01, which also is low. It is not so many years since a
figure of 5 per thousand was regarded as an average.
The following table shows the number of visits paid by the Health Visitors during the year: —
| (a) To expectant mothers | First | visits | 409 |
| Total | visits | 627 | |
| (b) To children under one year of age | First | visits | 2,062 |
| Total | visits | 6,880 | |
| (c) To children between the ages of one and five years | Total | visits | 14,780 |
| (d) Ineffective visits | Total | visits | 2,999 |
| Grand Total | 25,286 | ||