View report page

The hard core of infant deaths is due to congenital malformations, prematurity
and associated conditions and most of these deaths occur before the age of one week.
Continued effort is needed from all concerned to improve antenatal care, management of
labour and the nurture of young babies.
MATERNAL MORTALITY - No death occurred due to causes associated with pregnancy
and childbirth. Maternal deaths are usually divided into those due to septic infection
and those due to diseases and other conditions associated with pregnancy and
labour, and the local trend of deaths from these two causes is shown below:-

INFECTIOUS DISEASE
Notification to the Medical Officer of Health is the essential preliminary to
control of infectious disease. The diseases required by statute to be notified:smallpox,
cholera, diphtheria, membranous croup, erysipelas, scarlet fever, typhus
fever, typhoid fever, paratyphoid fever, relapsing fever, plague, poliomyelitis,
tuberculosis, malaria, dysentery, puerperal pyrexia, ophthalmia neonatorum, acute
primary pneumonia, acute influenzal pneumonia, whooping cough, measles, acute encephalitis,meningococcal
infection and food poisoning. It is known that all cases are
not notified, but there are no grounds for suspecting that the level of notification
varies to any great extent from year to year. Persons travelling overseas may be
required to produce evidence of recent vaccination against smallpox or inoculation
against yellow fever, cholera and typhoid fever Such certificates require to be
endorsed by the Medical Officer of Health and during the year 739 were so endorsed.
INCIDENCE OF NOTIFIABLE DISEASE - The number of cases notified during the year
is shown in Table VI and the trend of infectious diseases during the last 20 years
in Table VII.
SMALLPOX - No case of smallpox occurred in the Borough during 1957. Persons
arriving in the Borough from parts of the world where smallpox is prevalent, are
kept under observation till any chance of their developing the disease is over.
Freedom from smallpox has resulted in a neglect of infant vaccination. According
to the returns 492 children under the age of one year were vaccinated in 1957 as
compared with 570 in 1956. Modern travel is such that the risk of importing smallpox
is ever present.
SCARLET FEVER - The continuing mildness of this disease is tending to make
parents, and possibly doctors careless about home isolation and other measures to
prevent the spread of infection Of the 36 cases which occurred during the year, 7
were admitted to hospital No death from this disease has occurred in the Borough
since 1937.
DIPHTHERIA'- The Borough s freedom from diphtheria was maintained during the
year. The number of children under the age of one year who were immunised during
1957 was 553 as compared with 699 in 1956.
ERYSIPELAS - The number of notifications was 8, but no death was due to this
disease.
PNEUMONIA - Notifications of pneumonia were 39 as compared with 27 in 1956.
Of the total pneumonia deaths 81 per cent, occurred at age 65 and over.
MENINGOCOCCAL INFECTION - One case was notified during the year.
8