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5
During the year under review three women died from disease
and accidents associated with pregnancy and childbirth. Of these,
one could not be considered to be normally resident in Leyton.
She came from Scotland, and died as the result of a septic abortion;
but her death in Leyton increases the Leyton maternal mortality
rate by one-third..
The vital statistics to which reference has been made above
are merely extracts considered to merit special attention. Additional
statistical information will be found in the body of the Report
(pages 12—23).
INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
During the previous year (1947) there occurred the most
widespread and serious outbreak of acute poliomyelitis, commonly
known as "infantile paralysis we have ever had in this country.
In that year 14 Leyton cases were notified, of which one was fatal.
Fortunately there was no recurrence of the epidemic in 1948, when
only two cases were notified.
One of the outstanding epidemiological features of the year
1948 was the high incidence of both measles and whooping cough
—two of the most dangerous infectious diseases in young children.
Among the 1,088 children notified to be suffering from measles,
there was not a single death. This compares very favourably with
the last pre-war year when measles was epidemic—the year 1937,
when there were notified some 1,556 cases, of whom 23 died. It
is clear that the type of measles in 1948 was much milder than
before the war.
Unfortunately there is no comparable reduction to report in
the mortality from whooping cough. Of 623 notified cases of
whooping cough, three died during the year. Whooping cough is
one of the most serious of the infectious diseases affecting children,
and over a thousand deaths per annum are attributable to it. In
addition, it leaves a serious aftermath of debilitating illness in later
life. More than half the deaths from whooping cough occur in
children under one year of age; the mortality is even higher in
children under six months; and few children survive an attack of
whooping cough contracted under the age of three months. Clearly
the prevention of whooping cough is one of the most important and
urgent problems in preventive medicine. During recent years many
whooping cough vaccines, prepared in America and in this country,
have been put on the market; and many applications have been
received from parents who wished their children to be protected.