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Scarlet Fever.
There was a decided drop in the number of cases of Scarlet
Fever notified during the year as compared with 1935, the figure
for the year under review being 666, as against 1,057 for the
previous year.
It was not possible to provide hospital treatment in all cases
requiring the same, at the Council's Isolation Hospital, but by
arrangement with the London Fever Hospital, fourteen cases
were dealt with by them during the year, thus relieving the pressure
on Plaistow Hospital.
The deaths from Scarlet Fever were 4.
Diphtheria.
The number of cases of this disease decreased by over 300,
as compared with the previous year. All cases requiring hospital
treatment were accommodated at the Council's Fever Hospital.
At the end of the year posters giving particulars of facilities
offered by the Council for immunization against this disease, were
exhibited on notice boards at various public buildings, hospitals,
clinics, nursery schools. (See also pages 61, and 130, 131.
Measles.
In the early part of the year there was an epidemic of
measles. Over 200 posters giving advice on the symptoms and
treatment of this disease, also offering facilities for hospital treatment,
were exhibited all over the Borough.
Two hundred and fifty-one cases were admitted to hospital,
most of them to the Council's Isolation Hospital. A large number
of these cases had some form of complication, mostly
pneumonia.
There were 50 deaths from measles, 10 being children under
1 year of age.
Births.
The number of Births registered in the Borough during the
year was 5,483 (2,848 males and 2,635 females) ; but of this
total, 1,633 were children of non-residents who came to be confined
in one or other of the Maternity Hospitals, or were confined
while visiting relatives or friends; while 333 West Ham
women were confined outside the Borough. Suitable adjustment
makes the net West Ham Births 4,183 (2,149 males and 2,034
females); 85 of these (51 males and 34 females) were illegitimate).
Calculated on the Registrar General's estimate of the population
of the Borough at the middle of 1936, viz.: 265,800, the
rate for the year was 15.7.
The Birth Rate for the Great Towns was 14.9.
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