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Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on
the Health Services of the Borough for the year 1947.
There was a further small increase in the population
during the year, the Registrar-General's mid-year estimate
being 171,870 as compared with 163,730 for mid-1946.
There was also a small increase in the number of live
births—from 4,393 to 4,573—but owing to the increase in
population the birth-rate remained nearly the same (26.6 per
1,000 as against 26.8 in 1946). This is not to be regarded
as evidence that the birth rate is now stationary, but merely
as an indication that the peak of the post-war rise has
been prolonged over two years, in contrast to the very high
peak concentrated on a single year which occurred after
the first world war. Indeed the weekly returns were already
shewing a substantial drop in the numbers of births before
the end of the year.
The death rate remained low, at 11.9 per 1,000, but
the infant mortality shewed a disappointing increase from
32 in 1946 to 41 this year. The main causes contributing to
this increase were pneumonia, infantile diarrhoea and the
group of conditions included under the heading of "congenital
malformations birth injuries and infantile diseases."
The prominence of the first two of these causes was
probably an expression of the rather heavy incidence of
respiratory and alimentary infections which characterised
the earlier months of this year, and there is no indication
so far of any permanently unfavourable trend in the rate.
The maternal mortality rate also shewed a small increase.
The outstanding event of the year in relation to infectious
disease was the epidemic of polio-myelitis. This was
the most severe outbreak in the records of the Country,
but West Ham was fortunate in escaping very lightly with
15 cases and no deaths; none of the cases was severe.
There was also an epidemic of measles for the third year
in succession, a very unusual event; and an unusually heavy
prevalence of whooping cough. Apart from these, scarlet
fever and pneumonia shewed small increases, tuberculosis
a small decrease and diphtheria a further substantial decline.
There were thus a number of points on which the
health record of 1947 was not quite so favourable as that
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