Abstract
In a paper read at a meeting of the Royal Statistical Society on February 21, Dr. Bradford Hill pointed out that, in modern times, mortality from whooping cough in England and Wales has shown a remarkable decline, the death rate in the years 1921–30 being only one-third of that recorded in 1861–70. In spite of this improvement it remains a very important cause of child mortality. In 1921–30 it was responsible in England and Wales for no less than 44,000 deaths, or nearly 1 per cent of the total mortality of the population. The mortality falls mainly upon the first two years of life, while, in 1921–30, more than 90 per cent of the deaths were concentrated on the first five years, a ratio which was equally true at the end of the eighteenth century. In view of this concentration upon very young children, steps to control it are earnestly to be desired. One of the most curious anomalies of whooping-cough mortality, which has long been recognised, is the consistently heavier mortality of female children. Various attempts have been made in the past to explain this, for example, in terms of the sex differences in the formation and development of the larynx, sex differences in sensitiveness of the nervous system, but none of the hypotheses so far put forward seems, on careful examination, to be adequate.
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Mortality from Whooping Cough. Nature 131, 269–270 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131269d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131269d0