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INTRODUCTION
To The Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
County Borough of West Ham.
Mr. Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
I herewith present my Annual Report upon the Health
Services of West Ham for the year 1932. I could make this
volume, with ease and perhaps advantage, much bigger and have
had difficulty in keeping it within reasonable bounds owing to
the increased scope of the services and the mass of details connected
therewith.
It is gratifying to note that the incidence of Smallpox rapidly
declined during 1932 and that during the present year (1933)
there haste only been a few sporadic cases.
Infectious disease as a whole is far less fatal and
damaging to the health of the children than it was
some years ago. Scarlet Fever and Diphtheria together
claimed only fifteen deaths in West Ham during the year and
the after-effects of those who had suffered were not severe. It
is regrettable that more people do not avail themselves of the
opportunity afforded them at the Council's clinics to become
immunised against Diphtheria. Measles and Whooping Cough
claimed as victims no less than seven times the number of those
who died of Diphtheria and Scarlet Fever.
The mortality from street accidents is again striking, the
total being no fewer than sixty in number.
Heart disease caused six hundred and twenty-five deaths.
This is a large figure but various intercurrent diseases are often
the primary cause of a death finallv attributed to heart disease.
Cancer caused four hundred and eleven deaths. The considerable
and regular vearly increase of this disease is most disturbing.
It is general throughout the country and can be only
partly accounted for by increased accuracy of diagnosis and by
the fact that a greater number of people live to an age when
they are more susceptible to cancer.
The infant mortality is higher this year than it has been for
some years past. It still remains a fact that about fifty per cent.
of deaths occurring under one year of age take place before the
baby reaches the age of one month. Out of a total of three
hundred and fifty-eight deaths under one year of age, no fewer
than one hundred and fifty-one died from congenital debility,
premature birth, malformation and allied conditions. It is interesting
to note that approximately one in five of the total deaths
in West Ham occurred in people over seventy-five years of age.
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