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CAM 53
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
CAMBERWELL, S.E.5.
August, 1959
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
of the Metropolitan Borough of Camberwell.
Mr. Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
I have the honour to present to you my Annual Report for
the year 1958.
The vital statistics did not alter materially; the population,
as estimated by the Registrar-General at mid-year, was 177,300
which was a reduction of 400 as compared with the estimate
twelve months previously. The birth rate rose by four points to
17.0 per thousand of the population, but there was an increase in
the death rate from 10.6 to 11.5. The number of infant deaths,
however, fell to 65, which is equivalent to 21.5 per thousand live
births, and there was only one maternal death.
The number of notifications of infectious diseases fell from
3,677 to 1,238, but this was due to the fact that 1958 was not an
epidemic year for measles, the notifications of which totalled
668 as compared with 2,866 the previous year. There were
nine cases of poliomyelitis, one of whom died. It is to be hoped
that the campaign for vaccination against this disease will eventually
have such successful results as that for diphtheria immunisation—no
notifications of the latter disease were received
during 1958. As in previous years there were many notifications
of food poisoning, but as is generally the case it was seldom found
possible to trace the source of infection.
In general, the public health was maintained at a satisfactory
level. Among the main activities of the Public Health Department
during the year were the surveys of the properties in the
Council's proposed smoke control area comprising 1,025 acres in
the south, and of all industrial and domestic heating plants in the
Borough with an output of 55,000 B.T.U.'s or more; the latter
project was completed during the early part of the year.
The important question of home accidents also came under
review and is mentioned in the body of this Report, but the
danger of accidental coal gas poisoning (which was the subject of
an investigation referred to in last year's Report) was exemplified