London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Bethnal Green 1886

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Bethnal Green]

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from small-pox. These 11,076 deaths were equal to an annual rate
of 2.7 per 1,000, which was considerably below the average rate in
the preceding ten years, 1876-85. The zymotic death-rate during the
year 1886 in the thirty-nine sanitary districts did not exceed 2 per
1,000 in Kensington, St. James, Westminster, Hampstead, London
City, Strand, and St. George, Hanover Square; while it was equal to
3.5 in Mile End Old Town and in St. Giles, 3.8 in Holborn, 3.9 in
Bethnal Green, 4.1 in Shoreditch, 4.3 in Stepney, and 4.6 in St.
George-in-the-East. In the Eastern group of sanitary districts the
zymotic death-rate last year was equal to 3.6 per 1,000, while in the
rest of London it did not exceed 2.5 per 1,000. Compared with the
preceding year, the fatality of each of the principal zymotic diseases,
except whooping-cough and diarrhoea, showed a decline. Only 20
deaths were referred to small-pox in the metropolis during the whole
of 1886, the number in the preceding year having been 1,317; of
these 20 cases, 7 belonged to North London, and 8 to South London.
No small-pox patients were under treatment in any of the Metropolitan
Asylum Hospitals at the end of 1886, the number at the
commencement of the year having been 242. Measles showed the
greatest proportional fatality in Whitechapel, St. Luke's, Bethnal
Green, Bermondsey, Greenwich, and St. Giles; scarlet fever in Hackney
and in the east group of districts; diphtheria in Lambeth, Paddington,
Chelsea, St. George, Hanover Square, and Greenwich; whoopingcough
in Stepney, Shoreditch, Bethnal Green, and Holborn; enteric
fever in Hackney and Shoreditch; and diarrhoea in Clerkenwed,
Shoreditch, St. Luke's, Stepney, and St. George-in-the-East.
" Infant mortality in London during the year under notice, measured
by the proportion of deaths under one year of age to births registered,
was equal to 159 per 1,000, against an average rate of 152 in the
preceding ten years, 1876-85. The rate of infant mortality did not
exceed 121 per 1,000 in Plumstead, 130 in Lewisham, 131 in Hampstead,
and 139 in Mile End Old Town; while it ranged upwards in
the other sanitary districts to 191 in St. James, Westminster, 199 in
St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 202 in Stepney, 210 in Holborn, and 219
in the Strand. In the central districts the rate of infant mortality
was equal to 174 per 1,000, while in the whole of London it did not
average more than 159 per 1,000."