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
Shoreditch 1929
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Shoreditch]
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28
The sanitary condition of the homes visited as a result of these notifications
was found as regards air space, light and ventilation, to be as follows:—Satisfactory
95, fairly satisfactory 44, unsatisfactory 32.
In addition to the cases of pneumonia notified, as above, 37 cases of pneumonia
not of notifiable type were visited by the District Nursing Association. Altogether
the Association paid 661 visits in connection with 50 cases of pneumonia.
Measles.
This disease, which is one of the most serious of childhood, was less prevalent
than during 1928.
The deaths numbered 17 and occurred in the following age groups
Under 1 year 4
One to 2 years 6
Two to 5 years 7
17
Measles was responsible for 5.8 per cent, of all deaths of children under 5 years
of age.
As will be seen from the following table, measles is a disease which tends to become widespread every few years, for the reason that after a bad measles year large number of children are protected by reason of the fact that they have had th disease.
| Deaths | Death rate per 1,000 population | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Shore ditch | London | Shore ditch | London |
| 1920 | 50 | 1,026 | 0.49 | 0.22 |
| 1921 | 18 | 241 | 0.17 | 0.05 |
| 1922 | 84 | 1,559 | 0.81 | 0.35 |
| 1923 | 23 | 367 | 0.21 | 0.08 |
| 1924 | 58 | 1,335 | 0.55 | 0.29 |
| 1925 | 34 | 357 | 0.32 | 0.13 |
| 1926 | 25 | 914 | 0.23 | 0.20 |
| 1927 | 7 | 179 | 0.09 | 0.04 |
| 1928 | 59 | 1,355 | 0.59 | 0.30 |
| 1929 | 17 | 194 | 0.17 | 0.04 |
The distribution of the deaths in the different wards was as shown on the table
on pages 10 and 11.
Although not a notifiable disease, information regarding cases of measles reaches
the Public Health Department in various ways:—From the School Authorities, from
the Health Visitors, and from Medical Practitioners in the Borough. The number of
cases thus brought to our knowledge was 809. As explained in the last Annual