View report page

18
Incidence of Infectious Diseases of Parturient Women and
Infants and Young Children.
Puerperal Fever.—27 cases of puerperal septicaemia,
or 8 per 1,000 births, were notified, and there were 6
deaths. Of the cases notified 24 were removed to an
isolation hospital or the Fulham Infirmary. The proportion
of notified cases was again higher in Fulham
than in any other metropolitan borough.
In addition to those from septicaemia 7 deaths were
due to other accidents and diseases of pregnancy and
parturition.
Ophthalmia Neonatorum.—30 infants were notified as
suffering from ophthalmia, of whom 5 were removed to
hospital.
The result of the cases was as under:—
Recovered with sight unimpaired
26
Corneal opacity in both eyes
1
Died during year from other causes
3
30
Measles.—396 cases were notified, against 942 in
1920, and there were only two deaths, the fewest
recorded in any year.
Diarrhoea.—140 cases were notified, or 88 more than
in the previous year and there were 72 deaths.
The diarrhoeal mortality, though little above the
quinquennial average, was nearly double that of 1920,
but while the summer of that year was cold and wet, that
of last year was exceptionally hot and dry. For similar
climatic conditions to those of 1920 we must go back to
1911, and in that year 180 deaths or 45 per 1,000 births
were due to diarrhoea, so that last years figures are a
striking tribute to the success that has attended the
efforts made to reduce infantile mortality.