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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29
Report, the Metropolitan Asylums Board will take severe cases, or rases in which
home nursing is specially difficult, upon the recommendation of the Medical Officer
of Health. During the year the number of cases removed to the hospitals of the
Board was 198.
In accordance with arrangements made by the Borough Council, the District
Nursing Association paid 229 visits in connection with 28 cases of measles.
It was decided in the autumn to appoint special nurses in order to put into effect
arrangements similar to those which were reported to have been successful in the
Borough of Wandsworth.
Nurses, varying from one to three in number, were appointed temporarily in
December. Their duties were to visit the schools for the purpose of obtaining from the
school nurses lists of absentees who were likely to have measles, and then to visit the
homes in order to assist the mothers with advice and with the offer of nursing
assistance or of removal to hospital.
Brothers and sisters below school age were often found, in the houses so visited,
to be also suffering and, as measles is more severe in the very young, the early
detection of such cases was an excellent result of the scheme.
Reviewing the experiment as a whole, it must be reported with regret that it
largely failed by reason of the fact that the lists given at the schools to the Borough
Council nurses contained only a very small proportion of cases of measles, and that
a great deal of their time was, as a result, occupied in doing work that would appear
to fall more suitably to the lot of the school attendance officers.
Whooping Cough.
There were 40 deaths from whooping cough during the year.
Thirteen of the deaths occurred under one year of age, fifteen between one and
two, eleven between two and five, and one over five.
The death rate from this disease was 0 40 per 1,000 inhabitants. The deaths in London as a whole numbered 1,140, the death rate being 0-26. The number of deaths in Shoreditch in recent years have been as follows :—
| Year. | Deaths. | Year. | Deaths. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1918 | 93 | 1924 | 28 | |
| 1919 | 2 | 1925 | 29 | |
| 1920 | 12 | 1926 | 0 | |
| 1921 | 19 | 1927 | 24 | |
| 1922 | 27 | 1928 | 5 | |
| 1923 | 10 | |||
It will be seen that the number of deaths from whooping cough has not been
exceeded since the year 1918. Of the 40 deaths recorded all occurred in children
under ten years of age, 39 of them being under five, 28 under two and 13 under one.
The three things most to be desired by the Public Health Department in regard
to cases of whooping cough are:—that the Health Visitors should have early
information that the child is suffering; that all severe cases, cases with complica
tions, or cases in homes in which suitable nursing is impossible, should be promptly