View report page

REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
for the
METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF STEPNEY
FOR THE YEAR 1923.
Public Health Department,
43, White Horse Street,
May, 1924.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Stepney.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to submit herewith my twenty-third Annual Report on the health
and sanitary condition of the Borough for the year 1923. I desire to draw
y6ur attention to the following facts:—
(1) The birth-rate is the lowest on record. The birth-rate in the
Limehouse district is 29.3 per 1,000 of the population, and remains very
nearly the figure it was 20 years ago, but the birth-rate for the Whitchapel
district is only 16.3 per 1,000, or less than one-half what it was 20 years ago.
The births in the Whitechapel district in 1903 numbered 2,867, and in 1923,
894 only.
(2) The death-rate is 11.4 per 1,000, and is the lowest ever recorded
in the Borough. It is only slightly higher than that of London as a whole.
The death-rate during the last five years has been below 14 per 1,000, whereas
during the first ten years of the existence of the Borough Council, it was
always above 21 per 1,000.
(3) The decrease in the number of deaths from Zymotic diseases, which
numbered 189 in 1923, and 333 in 1922.
(4) The low incidence of Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria and Enteric Fever.
There was not a single death from the latter disease during the year, and 21
cases only were notified. Compare this with 1903, when 179 cases were
notified, and 27 proved fatal. The decline in Enteric Fever has been most
parked.