[Report 1947] / Medical Officer of Health, Billericay U.D.C.

  • Billericay (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1947
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1947] / Medical Officer of Health, Billericay U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    6/28 (page 4)
    Public Health Department. 96, High Street, Billericay. 5th November, 1948. To the Chairman and Members of the Urban District Council of Billericay. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to present my Annual Report for the year 1947. The Report is again in the shortened form in which it has appeared since 1939 to meet the wishes of the Minister of Health as reiterated in Circular 170/47 of 31st December, 1947. The statistics of infectious disease during the year reveal a very great increase in the number of measles cases, a smaller, but sub- stantial increase in the number of scarlet fever cases, and record the notification of six cases of acute anterior poliomyelitis (“infantile paralysis”). The epidemics of measles and poliomyelitis were nationwide, and in the case of the latter gave much cause for concern. Fuller reference to these diseases will be found in the report. Apart from the exceptions mentioned there was no out- standing change in the general pattern of the statistical returns mentioned above. Two features of this general pattern may be given special mention, not because they portray any unexpected deviation from the records of recent years, but because they illus- trate two trends of our local and national statistics which are receiv- ing greater attention from all interested in sociology as awareness grows of the problems they raise. The features I refer to are, firstly, the high average age at death of residents in the District, as shown by the fact that 40 per cent, of the total deaths relate to individuals over 74 years, and, secondly, the preponderance of deaths resulting from disease of the heart and blood vessels, which now account for 45 per cent, of all deaths. It will be seen from the latter figure that disease of the heart and circulatory system is by far the most important of the ‘killing diseases’ which afflict mankind, and it is probable that the shadow of this “Captain of the Hosts of Death” will loom even larger across the records of mortality in the yeai's ahead.