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2.
To the MAYOR, ALDERMEN and COUNCILLORS of the METROPOLITAN BOROUGH of SHOREDITCH
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to be able to report that the Borough's health during 1953
has been well above the average of any previous year except the phenomenal
1951. At first sight it appears that there have been more deaths, but this
is more than accounted for by the fact that all deaths occurring in
St. Matthew's Hospital are now counted against Shoreditch by the Registrar
General, although fewer than one-third of these patients lived in this
Borough before admission to hospital. Otherwise, all the major vital
statistics are lower than average. (even including the population - down
by 30 - and the births - 14 fewer).
The Infantile Mortality has dropped from 23 to 18 per 1,000 births,
none of those deaths being of illegitimate children; once again no woman has
died as a result of childbirth; tuberculosis deaths and notifications have
noticeably improved since our "best year 1951, (though some of this may be
a result of rehousing outside the Borough); the total deaths from cancer are
fewer, but unfortunately cancer of the lung has increased again in both
sexes; and although the total deaths from heart disease have decreased somewhat,
there is evidence of more diseased arteries than before (about 30% up).
Influenza had very little effect this year, and apart from an increase in
suicides, other causes were less in evidence than in 1952.
The number of stillbirths has inoreased from 15 to 20 this year, and is
now greater than the infantile mortality. Unfortunately no detailed
notification of the cause of a stillbirth ever reaches this department, and
I cannot help wondering if such notification would not be of value towards
reducing this figure.
To return to further details of the Infantile Mortality. We had our
first death from Sonne dysentery this year (a child of one mouth who caught
it from an older brother). Premature birth did not cause a death after the
age of one day, and most of the other neonates died after operations such as
pyloric stenosis, and birth injury or pneumonia. After the age of one month,
respiratory disease accounted for most deaths. Whereas the infant deaths
were nearly all in the winter months. the stillbirths occurred largely in the
June quarter.
Of notifications of infectious diseases, all showed a definite
reduction on 1951 and 1952's figures except whooping cough, and I can see no
reason why this should not be much reduced now that immunisation has reached
such a high standard of perfection. Dysentery has raised its head again, to
a figure midway between those of 1951 and 1952. Our three persons suffering
from food poisoning all obtained the offending article outside the Borough,
two of them having eaten cold tongue cooked at the home of relatives. Of
Tuberculosis notifications, the decrease has been chiefly among those aged
45 and over, during the past 2 years.