[Report 1965] / Medical Officer of Health, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough.

  • Merthyr Tydfil (Wales : County). Borough Council.
Date:
1965
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1965] / Medical Officer of Health, Merthyr Tydfil County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    from the disease and twenty of these died. But significantly at the end of this portion of the Report is one sentence “This year lan immunisation campaign is being commenced . The next year, 11934, he stated that 506 notifications were received and 43 children died as a result of Diphtheria but “it is a striking fact that no child who had received T.A.F. (Diphtheria Antitoxin) died from the disease and none of the children admitted with clinical Diphtheria had been completely immunised”. By 1938, out of a total of 153 notified cases only six died and in 1939, three out of 86. His Immunisation Campaign did much to eradicate the disease in the County Borough. The last recorded death from Diphtheria was in 1945 and no case of clinical Diphtheria has been reported for the past fifteen years. I have mentioned already that the Infant Death Rate of 16.41 in 11965 was the lowest on record. In 1933 the Infant Death Rate was 89.7 which means that over five times as many babies died 1 during the first year of life in that year as in 1965. In the same ; period our still births have dropped frx)m 77 to 29 for virtually the isame number of births. Taking both the Early Neonatal Deaths land Stillbirths into consideration, the 1933 figures would have !given a Perinatal Mortality Rate of 94.4 compared with this year’s rate of 34.5. The number of TB Deaths for the same two years has decreased from 71 to 11. I feel that these three examples - Diphtheria, Infant Mortality and Tuberculosis - illustrate the remarkable transformation in Public Health that has taken place during the past thirty years. There are many problems still unsolved; many diseases of little consequence in the Thirties have now become major causes of death. Conversely, diseases which made extensive inroads into the population of that day have subsided into insignificance. I am sure that Dr. Stephens will join me in flianking the Chair- man and Members of the Health Committee for their ready assistance in matters affecting Public Health, other Departments of the Corporation and associated Organisations for their co- operation and to file Staff for their continued loyalty. I have the honour to be, Mr. Mayor, Ladies and (jientlemen. Your obedient Servant, R. M. WILUAMS, Medical Officer of Health.