[Report 1941] / Medical Officer of Health, Glossop Borough.

  • Glossop (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1941
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1941] / Medical Officer of Health, Glossop Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/28 (page 3)
    PREFACE In submitting my twenty-second Annual Report on the health of Glossop for 1941, a few brief remarks can be made. Two years and ten months have passed since the outbreak of war, therefore it might be thought possible to be able to give an opinion of the general effects of it on the health of the population; a little can be said and the points are: Infantile Mortality remains low; in fact, that for 1941 was 38.6, the lowest ever recorded in the Borough, and in 1940 it was 42, also a low figure. For this satisfactory condition, in addition to the excellent work done by our Health Visitors and the Welfare Clinics. I think that the giving by the Ministry of Health of the Cod Liver Oil and Fruit Juices has been materially helpful, and the Ministries of Health and Food deserve great praise for their enterprise in providing them. Regarding school children, while there appears to be no undue mortality and serious morbidity there are undoubtedly some disquieting factors; for instance, in an investigation of the nutrition of 130 boys of about 11 years in 1941, it was found that their growth rate had been reduced as regards weight by over 50 per cent and in height by about 20 per cent as compared with the pre-war rates. While their strength appeared to be about normal, their endurance was found by two different tests to be greatly reduced. There has also been an increase in the incidence of Scabies and Lousiness. On the other hand, deaths* from Infectious Disease have been low; for instance, during 1940 and 1941 there have been no deaths due to Measles, Whooping Cough, Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever, Enteric or Epidemic Diarrhoea. There have been some deaths from Influenza, 6 in 1940, and 5 in 1941, and there were also outbreaks of Measles and Whooping Cough during 1940; in this latter year 691 cases of Measles were notified, with no deaths. Regarding the incidence and disability caused by general diseases there is no accurate information available to public health authorities; this is a serious defect in public health administration, and it should be one of the things which should be remedied after the war. The institution of a State Medical Service would bring this about, and also give health authorities, * There have been no deaths in Glossop for the period 1940, 1941 up to the end of July, 1942, from Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever, Measles, Whooping Cough, Epidemic Diarrhoea or Enteric Fever. But we must he on our guard, for if epidemic disease does come it may be of a new type and violent.