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

  • Brentford (London, England). Local Board.
Date:
[1894]
Catalogue details

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

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

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    2 It will be seen from the table that the average mortality is practically the same in the three districts but during the last four years there has been a steady increase in New Brentford. Infant Mortality.—The rate of this mortality or the proportion of deaths under i year of age to every iooo births has been 184.8. Last year it was 197.1, so that there is a small improvement to be recorded, but the deaths in infants under 1 year of age are still far too high and every effort must be made to reduce it before our town can be considered to be making satisfactory progress. The following are the deaths from the principal zymotic diseases :— Small Pox.—There has been one case of this disease in the district. In June an occupant of a boat on the canal was found to be suffering from Small Pox. Prompt measures were taken to isolate him and he was removed to the Highgate Small Pox Hospital. The boat and contents were thoroughly disinfected. Measles.—There have been 13 deaths from this disease all of which took place in June and July and were in children under 5 years old. Scarlatina.—There have been 7 deaths from Scarlatina, 2 under five years and 5 over 5 years old. Five of these deaths occurred in the Isolation Hospital. This is now the fifth year of the Scarlatina epidemic and in spite of all precautions and disinfections I am afraid that we have not yet seen the end of it. Some parents seem to think they are doing a very clever and praiseworthy action in not notifying the disease and spreading it by means of the schools as far as possible. Diptheria.—This disease has caused one death and there has been one death from Membranous Croup. Whooping Cough.—Four deaths have been caused by this disease which is the * same number as last year and considerably below the average. Typhoid Fever.—Again I have pleasure in recording the very few cases of this disease and the small number of deaths. 5 cases were notified and there was only one death. Typhus Fever.—In January a very healthy and steady young policeman was attacked by this disease and he was removed to the Isolation Hospital where he died. This was the only case which occurred and although I traced his movements for some time previous to his illness I could discover no cause for the attack. This is the first death from Typhus for many years. Diarrhcea.—There have been 30 deaths from Diarrhoea which is the highest number for the last 10 years. 29 were in children under 5 years old, and 20 of these deaths took place in July. I attribute the excessive mortality to the exceptionally hot summer. The number of deaths from these 8 diseases has been 58 and the zymotic death rate has been 4.1 which is higher than the average of the last 10 years and may be accounted for by the very high infant mortality from Diarrhcea and Measles in July. The following table shows the number of births and deaths and the various birth and death rates during the past 10 years.