[Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Stafford Borough.

  • Stafford (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1952
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1952] / Medical Officer of Health, Stafford Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/40
    Borough Health Office. 5 Martin Street Stafford June, 1953 To the Chairman and Members of the Public Health Committee. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to submit the Seventy-eighth Annua] Report of the health of Stafford. The Report is drawn up in accordance with the instruc¬ tions laid down in the Ministry of Health Circular 2/53, dated 22nd January, 1953. The vital statistics contained in this report and most conveniently summarised on page 34 disclose for the year under review, a very happy balance sheet. The death rate is low—deaths from infectious diseases have been either nil or favourably reduced. In particular, the low number of still births (the lowest yet recorded) associated with a very satisfactory infant death rate is worth commenting upon even though this refers to one year only. There have been outbreaks of those Infectious diseases associated with children. Generally of a mild character with no deaths this year, they do constitute a “worry” in the household affected and especially so if due to MTiooping Cough. There are substances available some of which do produce immunity sufficiently so to protect the child or to modify the attack. When some further technical diffi¬ culties have been overcome so that every batch of this immunising substance can be of a standard quality, the attack against this distressing complaint may well soon be launched on a national scale. Water.—Stafford has, for a number of years, enjoyed its own good wholesome and plentiful supply of water. It is known that this cannot continue as the demands of industry and the increasing population, not only in the Borough, but in the surrounding districts, has made it necessary to augment the supply from outside sources. Sewage.—In the introduction to the Annual Report (1951), reference was made to the anxiety of the Public Health Committee regarding the delay in remedying the