[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Acton].

  • Acton (London, England). Borough Council.
Date:
[1923]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Acton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/24 (page 8)
    1922 8 Infantile Mortality.—Seventy-five deaths occurred in children under one year of age. This number corresponds to an infantile mortality of 62 per 1,000 births. On Table 1 will be found the Infantile Mortalities for England. and Wales and the large Towns, and it will be seen on reference to that Table that the Infantile Mortality of Acton, is lower than that of England and Wales and than that of the 105 Great Towns with a population of over 50,000 inhabitants. It is also the lowest Infantile Mortality on record for the district. A reference to the Table giving the causes of death in weeks and months under one year of age will show how difficult it is to make much further reduction in the Infantile Mortality. Thirty nine of the deaths occurred in babies under one month old. Eighteen of the 75 deaths were due to Premature Birth, 11 to Congenital Malformation, 2 to Injury at Birth and 7 to Atrophy and Debility, in most cases Congenital Debility. Milk (Mothers and Children Order), 1919.—The scheme adopted by the Council, whereby milk is distributed by the Council in co-operation with the Guardians, was explained in last year's report. Six thousand, four hundred and fifty-five packets of dried milk were distributed through the Relieving Officers, and 516 packets were distributed to expectant mothers and in exceptional instances where the recipients would not be eligible for Poor Law Relief. The number of packets distributed weekly through the Guardians varied from 199 in the week ending April 15th to 53 in the week ending December 30th. The number of packets given free varied from 19 in each of the weeks ending January 14th and 21st to four in each of the weeks ending April 1st, 8th, 15th and December 30th. Infectious Diseases.—Table 5 gives the notifications of Infectious Diseases for the year. There is a considerable reduction in the number of notifications received, and a decrease in the number of deaths from Diphtheria, but an increase in the deaths from Scarlet Fever. Scarlet Fever.—Three hundred and five notifications were received and 3 deaths occurred from the disease. These figures do not represent the true case fatality of the disease. The deaths occurred in the early part of the year, and were partly a legacy of the notifications received from the last quarter of 1921. It will be recollected that incidence of Scarlet Fever increased in