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
Harrow 1944
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow]
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Redhill House and 60 (including 7 new-born infants) at other County
Hospitals. Nine deaths occurred in institutions for the treatment of
the tuberculous. 57 deaths took place in hospitals just outside the
district, and 92 in various London general hospitals.
The following is the Registrar-General's abridged list of causes of death in the district:—
| Male | Female | Male | Female | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Typhoid fever | 0 | 0 | Heart disease | 191 | 185 |
| Cerebro-spinal fever | 1 | 1 | Other circ. diseases | 30 | 43 |
| Scarlet fever | 0 | 0 | Bronchitis | 43 | 34 |
| Whooping cough | 2 | 1 | Pneumonia | 53 | 58 |
| Diphtheria | 1 | 1 | Other resp. diseases | 11 | 13 |
| Resp. tuberculosis | 44 | 39 | Ulcer of stomach | 25 | 3 |
| Other tuberculosis | 9 | 5 | Diarrhoea under 2 years | 10 | 2 |
| Syphilitic diseases | 6 | 3 | Appendicitis | 2 | 4 |
| Influenza | 3 | 2 | Other digestive diseases | 17 | 24 |
| Measles | 0 | 1 | Nephritis | 22 | 16 |
| Acute polio-myelitis | 0 | 0 | Puerperal sepsis | 0 | 1 |
| Acute encephalitis | 1 | 0 | Other maternal causes | 0 | 1 |
| Cancer of mouth and oesophagus (M), and uterus (F) | 14 | 17 | Premature birth | 15 | 11 |
| Cong. malformations, etc. | 24 | 18 | |||
| Cancer of stomach | 28 | 19 | Suicide | 10 | 7 |
| Cancer of breast | 0 | 44 | Road traffic accidents | 14 | 2 |
| Cancer of other sites | 112 | 86 | Other violent causes | 38 | 49 |
| Diabetes | 3 | 2 | All other causes | 82 | 73 |
| Intra.-cran. lesions | 51 | 105 | All causes | 862 | 870 |
1,732 deaths in a population of 185,090 is a death rate of 9.3, a
slight rise on the average figure of 9.1 for the last four years.
The total deaths, 962 male and 870 female, is a further slight decline
on the figures of the previous year. The relative freedom from influenza
was reflected in the smaller number of deaths, 5 as against 51. There
were fewer deaths from intra-cranial lesions, 156 as against 180. On the
other hand there was a substantial increase in each sex of deaths due to
cancer, the corresponding figures in each of the groupings being 31 as
against 26, 47 as against 32, 44 as against 31 and 198 as against 189.
Although the number of deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis amongst
males showed a fall from 55 to 44, this is again offset by an identical
increase amongst females, deaths being 39 as against 28 in 1943.
Fatalities from the infectious diseases expressed as a rate per thousand
population again compared favourably with figures for the country as a
whole, those of whooping cough 0.015, diphtheria 0.01, and measles 0.005
being about half the national rates (0.03, 0.02 and 0.01), that for influenza
being much less, 0.02 as against 0.12, and diarrhoea in those under two
years of age being slightly lower at 4.0 per thousand live births as
against 4.8.