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8
infants, which indicates either that premature infants are
prone to die, or that infants likely to die are prone to be
premature. A fuller analysis of this is included in the body
of the Report, but it is appropriate to mention that special
equipment and some accommodation at the Municipal Maternity
Home are to be provided in the near future.
93 per cent, of school-children and 79 per cent. of children
under the age of five years are now immunised against diphtheria,
and it is pleasing to record that only four cases of
diphtheria occurred during the year, and again, as in 1943,
there has been no death from diphtheria. It is also gratifying
to note that there has been no death from Whooping Cough
during 1944, in view of our efforts to give infants protection
by immunisation against this distressing disease.
There were 895 births credited to the town, and this is
a record during the last 37 years so that it is no surprise to find
that the birth-rate of 24.3 is the highest recorded for the town
since 1920 and before that in 1908 when the Erith birthrate
was 25.87, and the total number of births 750 with an
estimated population of 28,986 persons. This situation was to
a certain extent anticipated and again as during each of the last
five years the accommodation of the Municipal Maternity Home
has been increased. The capacity of the present buildings has
been utilised to the utmost and practically all the staff have in
consequence been made non-resident, billets being provided in
the immediate neighbourhood of the home. The demand in
Erith for institutional assistance during childbirth in my
opinion is definitely rising, but further expansion to meet this
need will be seriously handicapped, or may even be impossible,
as more accommodation can now only be provided by acquiring
additional premises or by building an annex in the grounds of
the institution.
It is a matter for congratulation that despite many difficulties
the collection of house refuse in the borough has been
maintained on a weekly basis, and two new Scammel vehicles,
each with a capacity of six cubic yards, have been purchased
this year for the service. These are in actual fact the first
implementation in the re-organisation suggested in the five-year
plan, and are specially designed with narrow bodies in order
to negotiate the many ill-paved and badly surfaced backalleyways
in the town.