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10
Metropolitan Borough of Hackney
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH FOR
THE YEAR 1931.
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Hackney, E.8.
To the Mayor. Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit, in accordance with the instructions
of the Ministry of Health, the Annual Report on the health of the
Metropolitan Borough of Hackney for the year 1931.
A comparative table for the Borough, showing the death, birth
and infantile mortality rates for the past 10 years, is set out on
page 27.
The death-rate for Hackney for the past year is 11.4, an increase
on the previous year's rate of 11.1. The rate for the County was
12.4, as compared with 11.4 for the previous year. Influenza and
Pneumonia showed the most striking increases as regards the deaths,
a result of the epidemic of Influenza towards the end of the year.
The fall in the number of smallpox cases from 493 in 1930 to
43 in 1931, with the resulting decrease in the number of contacts
from 8,361 to 754, made it possible to dispense with the temporary
clerical and nursing assistance that had been engaged to assist in
dealing with the large number of cases that occurred during the
previous year. Smallpox, it must be borne in mind, must be dealt
with on the special lines laid down by the Ministry for this disease,
which is able to cause enormous annoyance and loss of trade to a
community, even when the disease is, fortunately, of the mild type
and not comparable to the Asiatic type in which the mortality is
very high.
The assistance of Dr. Barlow, Deputy Medical Officer, made
it possible to detect several cases at the earliest possible moment and
to prevent an erroneous diagnosis of smallpox by medical