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6
COUNTY BOROUGH OF EAST HAM
Public Health Department,
Town Hall Annexe,
East Ham, E. 6
TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE MAYOR
THE ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS OF
THE COUNTY BOROUGH OF EAST HAM
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen
I have the honour to present the Annual Report on the health of the borough for the year
1955 and at once to remark that apart from Measles this has been a year singularly free from
epidemics.
The Registrar General's estimate of the population at the 30th June 1955 stands at 116,100
pointing a further decline of 1 600 in the year which in line with the borough's population trend
for the past five years follows the Council's policy to achieve an optimum population and must be
coupled with the steady decline in birth rate and total births since 1951
Infant Mortality.
Thirtyfive infants succumbed in their first year of life giving an infant mortality rate of
24.2 per 1,000 live births a worsening of last year's figures of 19.6. Of the 35 deaths, 25
occurred within one month of birth and of this perinatal mortality, prematurity with 18 deaths
claimed the major share.
There is little doubt a considerable proportion of perinatal deaths through prematurity were
associated with toxaemia of pregnancy in the mothers and here we have a problem as yet little
nearer to solution than was the position ten years ago.
Those medical men and women concerned with ante-natal care know of the scruples of most women
in regard to their weight and figures and are well aware of the work on weight control in the
gestation period as one of our chief precautionary measures against the fulmination of toxaemia
of pregnancy. Yet they find it unaccountably difficult to persuade a pregnant woman that all her
gain in weight is not due to the developing foetus and to regulate her weight increase will not
harm her unborn child but in fact enhance its chances of normality at birth and subsequent
survival.
I do not believe expectant mothers are imbued with the theory and practice of weight control
in the last six months of pregnancy
I think it just as important for a pregnant woman to carry her weight chart in her handbag as
her Rhesus Factor and Blood Grouping card but I see very few women who attend our clinics who
know how many pounds they have gained in weight in the preceding four weeks and I believe this
would be so in many areas where ante natal care is diffused between the three major contestants
for obstetric tutelage in the Health Service arena
It would appear to me the Hospital services are submerged in the welter of treatment the
General Practitioner services top heavy with general care and diagnosis of diseases and only
the Local Authority services are properly placed and orientated to give fully the ante-natal care
all expectant mothers should have for the gestation period is a time for learning when
receptivity is at its greatest and the teacher need not strain after rapprochement with her pupil.
Cancer
To turn now to the problems of cancer of the lung and cancer generally which vex us at the
present time.
I have compiled the following table from the general statistics which all can study. It
would appear -
1. That death from cancer is on the increase in our borough in spite of a falling population
2 In regard to cancer of the lung there is a steady increase in the number of deaths each
year but whereas deaths in men remain about the same there is a steady increase in the
number of women who succumb "from cancer of the lung each year In fact although the
numbers mercifully are small there has been a fourfold increase in death from cancer of
the lung in women in the past three years.