[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Uxbridge UDC 1953].

  • Uxbridge (London, England). Urban District Council.
Date:
[1954]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: [Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Uxbridge UDC 1953]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Annual Report OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH 1953 Public Health Department, 259, High Street, Uxbridge, June, 1954. 3 TO THE CHAIRMAN AND MEMBERS OF THE UXBRIDGE URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, There was no happening of any great importance affecting the .'health of the district during 1953; there was no epidemic, and the ) incidence of illness was such as to cause no alarm. !The population (mid-year 1953) has now reached 56,000 and there were 14,769 inhabited houses. As the district continues to grow it is encouraging to be able to say once again that the vital statistics can be regarded as satisfactory. The birth rate was 15-81, the rate for England and Wales being 15-85, and the death ( rate was 9-65, the rate for England and Wales being 11-4. The 1 infantile mortality rate was 23-5 which again compares favourably with the national rate of 26-8. The notifications for scarlet fever were fewer than in the •'previous year, while those for measles and whooping cough were >more numerous. There was no death from any of these diseases, i Once again, no case of diphtheria was notified, and in this con- ijnection the continued co-operation of parents in keeping up the devel of immunity in the community by having their children inoculated is much appreciated. It cannot be stressed too much J that the continued absence of diphtheria depends solely on having as many babies inoculated as possible. The absence of the disease itself tends to handicap the work of inoculation—the disease is now (unknown and is, therefore, no longer feared. It will recur, how¬ ever, if the level of immunity is allowed to fall by a failure to keep up the inoculation work. The conquest of diphtheria is one of the major triumphs of preventive medicine—only the continued (co-operation of parents can consolidate the victory. As time goes Ion, the efficacy of the injection material used in the prevention of whooping cough is steadily being increased, and it may be that, in the not too distant future, whooping cough will no longer be a (serious disease. There is evidence already that inoculation as now