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Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Camberwell, S.E.5.
August 12th, 1952.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell.
Your Worship, Ladies and Gentlemen,
In this report an endeavour is made to review the progress
of the work of the Public Health Department, to emphasise the
value of the health measures in operation in the Borough and
to compare them with those existing at the time the present
writer took office in 1922 by indicating the principal changes in
the vital statistics of Camberwell since that date.
The standard of sanitation and hygiene is at a higher level
to-day than has ever previously existed, owing to the efforts of
the preventive health service.
The advance in paediatrics has been largely due to recognition
of the fact that the social aspects of diseases have a considerable
bearing on infant mortality. Better nutrition has
also played its part. In 1921 the live birth rate was 23-5 per
1,000 total population compared with 16·4 in 1951. The
expectation of life of a baby born in 1921 was 58 years if a boy
or 62 years if a girl, while to-day, it is 66 and 71 years respectively.
The greatest single factor contributing to this
increase in the expectation of life is the reduction in the number
of deaths of infants under one year of age. The infant mortality
rate which was 74 per 1,000 live births in 1921 was 25·7 in 1951.
The maternal death rate has during these years decreased from
2·5 for every 1,000 total births to 1·0. The general death rate
in 1921 was 12·0 and in 1951 13·5. Deaths from tuberculosis
(all forms) numbered 352 in 1921 as compared with 65 in 1951.
The various personal health services, which were established
by this Council from 1922 onwards, and handed over to
the London County Council in 1948, have made an important
contribution to this satisfactory state of affairs.
The striking advance in medicine during recent years
is the protection of the community against disease by artificial
immunisation. Smallpox, diphtheria, enteric fever and tetanus
have been brought under control by immunisation Although
satisfactory results cannot be guaranteed in the case of whooping
cough and measles, yet the position is improving, especially in
the case of whooping cough.