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3
Metropolitan Borough of Hackney
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
FOR THE YEAR 1942.
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Hackney, E.8.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Hackney.
This Annual Report, like earlier reports issued since the
outbreak of war, has been prepared on abridged lines in accordance
with the direction of the Ministry of Health, but the statistics and
other particulars given in the Report show that the activities of the
Department have been carried on very much on pre-war lines
despite the difficulties which necessarily arise in war time and, in
fact, in some directions there has been a quite considerable increase
in the amount of work to be performed; for instance, in the
diphtheria immunisation clinics and at the Cleansing Station.
The number of live births rose from 1,802 in 1941 to 2,387 in
1942 and the birth-rate also from 13.7 to 18.1 which is the highest
birth-rate in the Borough since 1924, but it must be remembered
that this rate is based upon a population figure which excludes noncivilians.
On the other hand, the number of deaths diminished
from 1,940 in 1941 to 1,731 in 1942, and the death-rate declined
from 15.6 to 13.1.
Deaths of children in the first year of life numbered 107 as
compared with 73 in the previous year but this increase was not
disproportionate to the increased number of births; indeed, the
infant mortality rate dropped from 50.20 to 44.82.
As will be seen from the table given on page 22 of the Report,
there was a small increase in the number of cases of infectious