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CAM 52
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Camberwell, S.E.5.
June, 1958.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
of the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell.
Mr. Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
I have pleasure in presenting my Annual Report for 1957.
This has once again been produced in "magazine" form with
a statistical appendix which I feel sure makes it more interesting
to read and more useful for reference.
The population of the Borough according to the Registrar-General's
estimate was 177,700 at mid-year; this is only 100
less than the previous year's estimate. The death rate fell from
10.8 to 10.6 and the birth rate rose from 15.4 to 16.8. These are
crude rates ; the adjusted rates, which are computed by using
the area comparability factors provided by the Registrar-General,
appear on page 40.
It is paradoxical that Annual Reports of Medical Officers
of Health purport to be reports on the health of the population
when, in fact, the information they contain relates largely to
the incidence of illness and disease; they are strictly speaking
" reports on the ill-health of the Borough." How much more
positive it would be if an index could be devised which would
indicate for example the number of persons in the Borough who
did not suffer from tuberculosis during the year. Even more
important would it be to know something about the state of
well-being of the community or, better still, an indication of the
contentment and happiness of the population. It may be a
long time before we could produce tables of this sort but it is
hoped that statisticians will soon be able to provide us with
health indices as opposed to mortality and morbidity rates.
During the latter part of 1957 and the beginning of 1958
there was a sharp rise in the incidence of respiratory infection
in very young children, many of whom were admitted to
hospital. This was undoubtedly a virus condition. Unfortunately,
very little is known as yet about the aetiology of these
diseases and herein lies a fruitful field for research. It is gratifying
to know that the Research Department of the College of General
Practitioners is obtaining a good deal of information on this