[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hampstead Borough].

  • Hampstead (London, England). Metropolitan Borough.
Date:
1958
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Hampstead Borough]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/72 (page 3)
    3 Public Health Department, 98a, Avenue Road, Hampstead, N .W.3. 2nd May, 1958. TO THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS OF THE METROPOLITAN BOROUGH OF HAMPSTEAD. Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to present my Annual Report on the health and sanitary circumstances of the Borough during 1957. The health of the population as judged by the vital statistics and the notifications of infectious disease was satisfactory, although it must be remembered that the majority of illnesses are not notifiable. For example, the epidemic of influenza which affected most parts of the country caused a very large number of cases in Hampstead during September, October and November. As the disease is not notifiable the precise number Is not known, but a number of general medical practitioners very kindly supplied information of cases occurring in their practices and it is evident that there were some thousands of persons affected. The majority were mild attacks and the number of deaths was very small. Whilst the records of births, deaths and infectious disease give some limited indication of the standard of health of the population it is extremely difficult to find figures which will provide a standard for the environment. It is true that the last census in 1951 provided Information on the number of persons per room, the number of households with sinks, cooking stoves, baths, etc., the extent to which these facilities were shared and information on other matters and It was possible on these points to compare conditions in Hampstead with other areas. It is not possible, however, to obtain the Information to compare present conditions in Hampstead with those existing in 1951. Some idea of changing conditions can be obtained from the number of intimation notices served in respect of statutory nuisances. Since 1957 these have been as follows;-