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18
Infant Death-Rate.—During the past five years the deaths
of infants under one year of age have shown a very slight tendency
to increase and it is very pleasing, therefore, to find the infant
death-rate for 1934 to be the lowest ever recorded in the Borough.
The death-rate of 38 per thousand births is considerably less than
the rates for England and Wales (59), the 121 Great Towns (63),
and London (67). From the table on page 13 it will be seen that
the mortality of infants for the past year is just one-third of the
average mortality experienced up to 1905. When it is realized
that if the death-rates of those days still prevailed the deaths
during the past year would have totalled 231 instead of 77, it will
be appreciated that the efforts and money devoted to child welfare
work and the general improvement of national life have met with
no little reward.
The number of deaths and the mortality rates for the individual
wards are shown on page 14 and it will be seen that the Castlebar
Ward has the distinction of not having had any infant deaths
during the year. The North Greenford Ward, with 315 births
had only five deaths, and is the ward with the second lowest
mortality, expressed as 18 deaths per thousand births, while the
highest number of infant deaths (12) and the highest mortality,
83 per thousand births, were recorded in the Manor Ward.
On the next page will be found the causes of infant deaths
in the last ten years and it will be seen that prematurity was again
the cause of the greatest number of deaths, although the total of
20 deaths due to this cause was much less than in the previous
year.
The second highest number of deaths was caused by diarrhoea
and enteritis, from which as many as eleven deaths were recorded.
This is the highest number of deaths from this cause for many
years.
It will also be seen that 39 of the 77 deaths occurred before
the infant was one week old, while 47 deaths occurred before the
infant was four weeks old. This latter figure gives a neo-natal
death-rate of 23 per thousand live births.