[Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Guernsey.

  • Guernsey (Channel Islands). Council.
Date:
1966
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1966] / Medical Officer of Health, Guernsey. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/76 (page 10)
    As regards visiting population, it might fairly be estimated that our population is increased by some 12,000 persons at any one time during the season, giving a summer population of some 59,779 for the whole Bailiwick inclusive. Births In 1966 there were 780 live births registered in the Island. Of these 397 were males and 383 females. The birth rate is therefore 17.05 per thousand. The corresponding rate for 1965 was 17.9. The rates of illegitimate births in relation to 1000 live births in urban and rural areas of England and Wales in 1966 were 86.0, 51.9 respectively and for the country as a whole 78.9. Guernseys rate was 95, that is 1 : 10.5 live births. There were 12 still births as against 11 in 1965 giving a rate of 15.38 per thousand live births. Deaths There were 564 deaths in all in 1966 as compared with 568 in 1965. This is yet another interesting example of the curious predictability of the vital statistics of this Island the pattern of which recurs every year and in so many respects. The crude death rate arising from the total deaths is 12.3 per thousand, with a corrected death rate of 10.57 per thousand. The correction is related to the particular age and sex distribution of the population of the Island and the comparability factor is 0.86. Comments on Cause of Death 1. General The pattern of the causes of death showed little variation from usual and once again there was no indication of the impact of any disease from outside the community having any influence. 2. Pulmonary Tuberculosis Deaths from this numbered 3 as against 2 in 1965 which must be regarded as a very satisfactory figure. These deaths occurred in the age group 45-64. One other death was attributed to T.B., the site unspecified. The inference to be drawn from these low figures is that we are undoubtedly making progress towards the virtual elimination of the disease from the Island thanks to B.C.G. vaccinations, contact tracing and a steady though slow improvement in environmental conditions. Further, it must be borne in mind that figures from deaths due to Tuberculosis can be “ weighted ” by the fact that a person suffering from this disease can die from an additional cause super-imposed upon his original infection. 3. Cancer According to the usual procedure, cancer of the lung and respiratory passages is dealt with separately in this Report. Of other sites, cancer of the stomach caused 28 deaths as compared with 20 in 1965, 15 in 1964 and 16 in 1963. The total deaths from cancer were 127 as compared with 104 in 1965, and 100 in 1964. Deaths from cancer of the large intestine were 6 compared with 10 in 1965 and 9 in 1964. Some of the overall increase in cancer must he attributed to an increase in cancer of the stomach (28 compared with 20).