[Report 1956] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Rochdale County Borough.

  • Rochdale (Lancashire, England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1956
Catalogue details

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

Credit: [Report 1956] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Rochdale County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/132 (page 4)
    To the Chairman and Members of the Health Committee of the County Borough of Rochdale. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to present my Annual Report on the health conditions in the Count}7 Borough of Rochdale and on the work of the Public Health Depart¬ ment for the year 1956. An examination of the statistics will show that Infectious Diseases are much reduced, that Infant Mortality has risen from the 1955 figure, that there were no Maternal Deaths, that the Birth Rate was about average for the last eight years and the Death Rate average for the last ten years, and that there are now 1,474 fewer persons living in Rochdale than there were in 1951. What does all that mean ? Infectious Diseases totals now depend largely on the presence or absence of Measles and we know already that the 1957 figure will be much higher. Infantile Mortality in 1955 was the lowest in Rochdale’s history and much below the average for the Country. Figures like that are a great incentive, but we know they cannot be continuously maintained. In fact, what we can say is that 1956 was a quietly satisfactory year in health mat¬ ters, but only in such matters as we have been accustomed to record. Many things remind us of the folly of complacency and of continuing to use old yard sticks. Some diseases are becoming or have become somnolent— Scarlet Fever, Diphtheria and Tuberculosis are recent examples. Is it not to be expected that there are others awakening or appearing for the first time at any rate in our medical history? Indeed, there is evidence to that effect. Thirty years ago the Streptococcus was the germ that brought so much alarm, now it has become milder in manner and the Staphylococcus is taking its place, not so dramatic yet, but stubborn and tenacious. Virus diseases are amongst us, not so violent as their predecessors, but just as full of diagnostic problems as bacterial diseases were at the end of last century. Are these conditions re-appearing after many years of quiescence, are they activated by our present mode of living, or are they merely arising, as it were, to occupy the space vacated by their predecessors? Whatever may be the answer to these questions, it is certain that new protective techniques will have to be developed. Gradually our highly civilised habits are finding out the weak spots. The obesity of today is more difficult to tackle than the emaciation of yesterday. The disappearance of horse traffic caused manure heaps and fly-produced diarrhoeas to disappear, but paved the way for the motor car which renders the roads a death trap and clogs its own mobility. “Many motorists gave up the attempt to reach the sea”, that is a pathetic quote from a Monday national paper.