[Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard Borough.

  • Liskeard (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1951
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/20 (page 6)
    The statistics appearing above show that apart from infant mortality, the state of health in the Borough during 1951, was up to the average for the nation as a whole. I am glad to be able to report that for the fourth successive year there' were no maternal deaths. The rate of infant mortality is much above that of neigh¬ bouring districts, and England and Wales, and calls for some comment. All five infants who died were less than one week old at the time of death. The causes of death were as follows : Premature birth ... Birth injury Bronchopneumonia Accidental suffocation 2 1 1 1 Of these causes the only one easily preventable is that of accidental suffocation, which usually takes place when a new born infant occupies the same bed as its mother and is exposed to the danger of being overlaid. As for the other causes it is not possible to say with certainty whether they could have been prevented. In any event it is not wise to draw any definite conclusions from such a small number of incidents—five in all. infectious Disease. There was a marked increase in the amount of infectious disease notified during 1951, the total being 114 cases, as against 9 cases in 1950. The increase was very largely due to an outbreak of whooping cough which commenced in June, when 40 cases were notified, and continued until September, by which time a total of 89 cases had been notified. There were smaller increases in the incidence of measles, pneumonia, and scarlet fever. It is worth noting that whereas in the surrounding rural area there was a sharp epidemic of measles, only 14 cases of this disease occurred in the Borough. I am unable to explain why the child population of the Borough was spared, especially in view of the fact that there was practically no measles here in 1950, and there must have been an appreciable number of young children who would have been susceptible to the disease. On the other hand the incidence of whooping cough was the highest of any district in Health Area No. 7, and the case rate was above that of both the Health Area and the country as a whole. On looking through the figures for whooping cough I find that in the three years preceeding 1951, the incidence of whooping cough in the Borough was relatively light with the consequent building up of a reservoir of children possessing no immunity to the disease. Experiments carried out in the last year or two have resulted in the development of an inoculation which lessens the severity of this disease, and it may even be possible in the not too distant future