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4
Public Health Department,
43, White Horse Street,
Stepney, London, E.l.
23rd May, 1938.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Stepney.
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit to you this, my second Annual Report,
being the Annual Report on the health and sanitary conditions of the
Metropolitan Borough of Stepney for the year 1937.
There are several encouraging features in the annual statistics which
it gives me pleasure to report. Amongst these are the marked improvement
in the infantile mortality rate—60.5 per 1,000 live births—which is, in fact,
the lowest infantile mortality rate ever recorded in the Borough. Concurrently,
deaths from those diseases which conduce most largely to fatalities amongst
infants were markedly reduced. I refer particularly to measles and diarrhoea.
This year (1937) with the year 1935 is the second in the history of the Borough
in which no deaths from measles occurred, whilst the deaths from infantile
diarrhoea were reduced from 71 to 24.
The maternal mortality rate was 2.43 per 1,000 births. There were 7
maternal deaths.
Infectious disease notifications decreased by 1,163—mainly due to the
comparative absence of measles—and deaths from infectious diseases decreased
from 107 to 70.
There were 115 fewer cases of scarlet fever and no deaths, and though
there were 173 more cases of diphtheria the disease was mild and the deaths
were 4 less than in the previous year.
There was 1 death from typhoid and none from small-pox.
Tuberculosis notifications of new cases occurring in the Borough were
45 less than in the previous year.
An unusual epidemiological feature during the year was the apparently
large number of cases of Sonne dysentery occurring amongst people of all
ages in the Borough. Fortunately, this form of bacillary dysentery, caused
by the Bacillus Sonne, is mild in all cases except infants under 1 year. The
short, though sharp, nature of the attack, the absence of marked symptoms
other than diarrhoea and the almost invariable recovery within a week tended
to cause the disease to be overlooked, so that practically the only cases notified
were those which occurred in hospitals, where diagnosis by laboratory examination
was a routine measure. But, from comments heard and observation
in the Borough generally, it appeared likely that the complaint was pretty
general throughout Stepney during the months of November and December.
According to the Registrar-General's estimate, the population of the
Borough decreased by 4,700 in 1937, the year under review.
The birth-rate was 13.5 compared with 14,7 the previous year.