[Report 1925] / Medical Officer of Health, Eastbourne County Borough.

  • Eastbourne (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1925] / Medical Officer of Health, Eastbourne County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/128 (page 6)
    To His Worship the Mayor and to the Aldermen and Cotincillors of the County Borough of Eastbourne. Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, In submitting herewith my Annual Report for the year 1925 as Medical Officer of Health I would point out that by the instructions of the Ministry it should be a Survey Report, and it will be found to be on the lines of those instructions. It is the thirty-second Annual Report I have submitted to you, and except during certain war years, when I was on foreign service, these reports have been full and com- prehensive. The instructions of the Ministry necessitate a statement as to progress or otherwise in the various matters pertaining to the Department during the preceding five years, and this is accordingly submitted. The Report is otherwise on the lines of those of recent years for convenience of comparison. The whole series of reports forms a continuous history of the progress of the Borough in Public Health matters. The year 1925 showed no particular record features, with the exception of an almost complete absence of the disease Diphtheria among the Eastbourne population. Though not quite a record year, infectious disease was again at a very low ebb, except for Influenza. Eastbourne’s death rate, though 0.1 per 1,000 lower than that of the Country generally, was higher than it had been for some j^ears. The cause of the increase was an Influenza epidemic and the extra deaths were largely those of persons of advanced age, 56% being in persons over 65 years of age. Owing to the very low birth-rate the deaths exceeded the births by five. In some other similar towns the excess of deaths was much greater. It is the first' year where this