[Report 1964] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard Borough.

  • Liskeard (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1964
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1964] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/34 (page 1)
    TO THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN, AND COUNCILLORS OF THE CORPORATION OF THE BOROUGH OF LISKEARD Your Worship, Ladies, and Gentlemen, As has been the case for many years, changes in the population of No. 7. Health Area were relatively small and. insignificant in 1964. Small reductions in St. Germans R.D. and Liskeard M.3. were offset by small increases in the other four County Districts, resulting in an overall increase in the Health Area population from 50.340 in 1963 to 50.820 in 1964, The corrected birth rate showpd a further increase to 18^8 per 1,000,of population which again brought it above the national rate. Still births at 11 were identical with last years figure, and the rate here was below the national rate. Deaths at 674 were below the 1963 figure, but the corrected rate per 1,000 of the population was slightly above the rate for England and Wales. The excess of live births over deaths was 90o For the third successive year there were no maternal deaths. The figure for deaths of infants under one year of age was up on the 1963 figure, but the rate per 1,000 live births was still fractionally below the national rate. Of the 15 infants who died, 7 failed to survive the first critical week of life and a further 3 lived less than four weeks. In 1962 I commented briefly cn rate of illegitimate births in the Health Area which in that year represented 5.6 per cent of all live births, and had not increased noticeably above the average for the previous 13 years. In 1963 the rate fell slightly to 54% ’ t b:i ...','~4 there was a sharp increase to 8.1%. The 62 illegitimate births registered meant that one child in every twelve born started life with this social handicap. Of the 674 deaths registered in 1964 heart disease was responsible for 271, strokes caused 120, and 111 were caused by cancer. Of the defined forms of heart disease that form affecting the coronary arteries of the heart itself caused 123 deaths. Amongst the defined forms of cancer that affecting the lung and windpipe was most prevalent causing 16 deaths. Cancer of the stomach was almost as prevalent and caused 15 deaths. There was a sharp reduction in the mortality from breast cancer which in 1964 caused only 6 deaths. Of those who died during 1964 some 49 per cent had reached, or exceeded the age of 75 years at the time of death, whilst a further 27 per cent were between 65 end 74 years of age at the time of death. The incidence of notifiable disease ( other than tuberculosis) was very light during the year when 139 cases only were notified. The most prevalent of this group of diseases was measles, of which there were 84 cases occuring mainly in the St. Germans and Liskeard Rural Districts. Of the more serious forms of notifiable disease there were two cases of meningitis and one of meningococcal infection, but none of these had a fatal outcome or serious after-effects. Although the incidence of notifiable diseases ether than measles has tended to decline in recent years there has been an increase in minor forms of illness which are almost certainly infectious in character. Of these one of the more prevalent, and troublesome is a type of epidemic vomiting and diarrhoea. This appears to involve mainly children in the lover school age group i.e. between the ages of 5 and 8 years but old.er children and adults are by no means immune. The cause is not known but is believed to be a virus. The infecting agent may spread through the material vomited, the stools, or from the mouth, nose, and throat in much the same way as the common cold. Whilst personal hygiene is helpful in limiting the spread of infection the fact that much of the dissemination of the infecting agent is from the upper respiratory tract makes really satisfactory control virtually impossible. Happily the disease is of short deration, and not usually severe particularly in children and it represents more of a nuisance than any real danger to health. In some older children and in adults the attacks tend to be more severe. In addition to this type of epidemic illness affecting the gastro¬ intestinal system one also hears of, and sees a fair amount of vague influenza ~ like illness, same of which may of course be true influenza virus infection, but much is proh&bly due to a variety of other viruses which have been discovered in the last decade. It is fortunate that most of these infections are of a mild nature since most of the drugs currently available for treating them are not very effective.