[Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, Guisborough U.D.C.

  • Guisborough (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, Guisborough U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The number of deaths of children under one year of age was 9, so that if the estimate of births as 150 is correct, the infant mortality rate has been 60 infant deaths per thousand births, compared with a rate of 43 in 1945 and of 82 in 1944. There were no deaths at all of children aged from 1—4 years, maintaining the very satisfactory improvement evidenced at this age period during the last few years. In the five years 1919—1923, when the number of children at these ages was roughly half as many again as now, 30 of them died, and 31 in the five years 1929—1933. In the period 1934—38, however, there were only 17 deaths at this age, only 13 in the period 1939—43, now only two children of this age died in the three years since 1943. There is no doubt that better nutrition and better care resulting from education and the smaller size of families have been largely responsible for this happy result. Fewer deaths is simply another way of saying better health, and if there is better health during the period of active growth the benefit will be experienced throughout the whole of life. In this connection it is interesting to compare the relative number of deaths at different age periods of life in 1919 with those in 1946. The figures for this district are as follows Deaths at Ages Estimated Deaths Under 1—4 5—14 15—24 25—64 65 years Population Births (all ages) ! year years years years years and up 1919 6,981 217 121 27 8 3 4 34 45 1946 (7,900) (150) 105 9 0 3 1 31 59 In 1919 the number of deaths of persons under 25 years of age was 42, while the number dying aged 25 years and upwards was 79 ; in 1946 the corresponding figures were 13 and 90. Due to the decline in the birth-rate since 1919—from about 31 to as low as 15 5 in 1939—the number of young people in the district has diminished but allowing for this the reduction of the number of deaths from 42 to 13 is still a remarkable evidence of improved health. The statistics of notifiable diseases are given in Table II in the appendix to this report and mostly show a diminution compared with 1945, as is seen in the following t3blc * Notified Cases per thousand Population. N.R. Combined Guisborough U.D. Districts 1946 1945 1946 1945 Scarlet Fever 1-52 3-20 1-89 2-55 Diphtheria 000 1-92 0-40 1T2 Enteric Fever 013 000 003 002 Measles .... 1113 16-65 5-78 16-60 Whooping Cough 1-54 2-18 3-62 1 64 Puerperal Pyrexia 9-92 7-05 4-70 4-49 (per thousand births). Scarlet fever of late years has become a mild disease, with few complications and of little danger to life. The last death from this cause in the district occurred in 1928. It is now the practice to discharge uncomplicated cases from the Joint Hospital after a fortnight’s isolation.