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To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Battersea.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have much pleasure in presenting to you the Annual Report
on the health and sanitary conditions of the Borough for the yea r
1955, the fourth complete year for which I have had the privilege
of being responsible for the health services in the area. The statistical
tables in the report give a factual account of our work and I refer hers
only to one or two features of our work of particular interest.
The population of the Borough has decreased slightly over the
past two years, and this decrease was continued in 1955, in which
year the population was estimated at 113,700. The birth rate was
15.3, a slight increase over the previous year, while the death rate
was 11.36, also showing a slight increase over the previous year. The
infant mortality rate was 24.7, this being an increase over the rate
for the year 1954. I dealt in my report for last year on certain aspect
of the infant mortality rate, and it is with some disappointment that
I report that the rate for 1955 is higher than that for 1954. Where,
however, we are dealing with comparatively small figures, it must be
expected that there will be fluctuations from year to year. I
the view in last year's Report that a further reduction in the infa' 1
mortality rate is to be brought about by an attack on those adverse
factors which affect the expectant mother and her unborn child,
pointed out how complicated are these factors, involving the interplay
of genetical, obstetrical, environmental and social factors. At the tim e
of writing it is interesting to note that a National Committee has be 6"
set up to study the Maternity Services, and the report of this Con 1 '
mittee will be awaited with the keenest interest, as it may have '
bearing on some at least of the factors that might contribute to th
deaths of infants in the first month of life.
With regard to infectious diseases, a large increase was noted,
total of 2,468, as compared with 648 cases in the previous 1
This increase was principally due to the number of cases of meas les
which occurred in the early part of the year. As is well known, the
incidence of measles in London tends to arise in waves, every two
years, and 1955 was a "measles" year. There was also an increasese
in the number of cases of whooping cough, 177 cases in 1955, as
compared with 116 in 1954. Again I have to report that no case
of diphtheria was notified. In 1954 five cases of poliomyelitis Were
notified, whereas in 1955 twenty cases were brought to our notice.
In two of these cases, however, the diagnosis was not confirmed, so
we were left with eighteen cases of poliomyelitis, of which nine had
some form of paralysis, and nine were non-paralytic. Of the
infectious diseases, sixty-two cases of scarlet fever were notified, and
thirty cases of dysentery of a mild type.
Tuberculosis showed a drop in the number of cases notified, namely,
129, as compared with 140 in 1954, and 165 in 1953, but in addition
to the cases notified, other cases were reported or came to our not ices,
so that in all we were aware of a total of 209 cases of tuberculosis
during the year, as compared with 221 during the previous year. The
number of deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis was also fewer in 1955