[Report 1958] / Medical Officer of Health, Bromyard R.D.C.

  • Bromyard (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1958
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1958] / Medical Officer of Health, Bromyard R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/20 (page 4)
    To the Chairman and Members of The Bromyard Rural District Council. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I beg to present the Annual Report for the year 1958. In the statistical section most of the rates are based on small figures and are not significant. The birth and death rates have been adjusted to allow for the extra large number of elderly people who live in the district—and when this has been done it is found that over the last five years there has been consistently a higher birth rate than would be expected by comparison with the country as a whole. The figure is the highest of the four rural districts of which I am Medical Officer and is going to mean a considerable pressure of population in about 25 years’ time. Under the heading of Infectious Diseases, 1958 shows reduced figures other than for Scarlet Fever and Dysentery. The Dysen- tery outbreak occurred in Bredenbury and was due to the presence of infection in a food handler. As the figures mean little by them- selves if unrelated to events elsewhere, I have included a summary of similar notifications for the seven urban and rural authorities of North Herefordshire. It is important to note that there was no new notification of Tuberculosis during the year. There can be little doubt that the intense effort of the past 10 years in contact tracing and follow- up, and the improvement in drug treatment to render patients non-infectious has reduced this one-time scourge to a very minor role in the public health world. I am grateful to Mr. Worsdall for the section on Water Supply, Housing, etc. In particular, I would draw attention to the fact that there are more houses in the district without water supply than with one; it is to the credit of the Council that the decision to go ahead with the Teme intake scheme has been taken. Under Housing, I should like to draw attention to the sum- mary of work under Housing Improvement Grants which shows how, up to the end of 1958, no fewer than 99 houses had been put in proper order at a cost, in grants, of just over' £30,000, that is say, at about£,320 per house. I would like to thank Mr. Worsdall for his helpfulness in introducing me to the district and for his great co-operation in some of the problems that have arisen during the year. G. D. K. NEEDHAM, Medical Officer of Health.