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10
Metropolitan Borough of Hackney
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
FOR THE YEAR 1936.
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 Article 14 (3)
of the Sanitary Officers' Order, 1926, my Annual Report upon the
sanitary circumstances, the sanitary administration, and the state
of the public health generally in the Metropolitan Borough of
Hackney during the year 1936.
The increase in the general death.rate (crude death.rate) from
10.6 in 1935 to 12.0 per 1,000 inhabitants in 1936 was largely
accounted for by heart disease (in the age groups 55 and upwards),
influenza, pneumonia and bronchitis.
The infantile mortality.rate of the Borough showed an increase
from 47.6 to 62.9 per 1,000 births. An increased infantile
mortality.rate was general throughout the County and also occurred
in England and Wales. In Hackney this was caused principally
by measles and whooping.cough which, as the result of the epidemics
of these diseases, showed an increase over the previous year, as did
pneumonia and diarrhoea. There were also a larger number of
deaths from congenital defects but this last cause was not reflected
in the maternal mortality.
There were only four deaths in 1936 of women from causes
directly associated with childbirth, the smallest number of maternal
deaths ever recorded in the Borough. The maternal mortality.rate
of 1.28 per 1,000 total (live and still) births was also a low record.
The corresponding rate for England and Wales was 3.6.