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To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Battersea.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to present to you the Annual Report on the Health of the
Borough of Battersea for the year 1958.
The population of Battersea, which has been slowly decreasing.
showed a further drop in 1958, the mid-year estimate being 110,400
compared with 111,800 in 1957. There were 1,917 births, including
39 still births, to Battersea residents, which gives a live birth rate
(corrected) of 16.16, compared with 15.44 the previous year. The death
rate (corrected) was slightly lower at 11.07 per thousand, compared with
11.10. The corrected rates are arrived at after applying the area
comparability factor supplied by the Registrar-General. Only 1 mother
died as a result of pregnancy and childbirth, compared with 3 in the
previous year, and this gave a maternal mortality rate of 0.52 per
thousand births. The infant mortality rate was 23.96, a slight increase
over 1957. This rate was based on a total of 45 deaths in infants under
1 year, and of these 35 or 77.8 per cent, occurred in the first four weeks
of life. I have on previous occasions referred to the difficulty of
reducing still further the infant mortality rate, particularly in infants in the
first month of life. This neo-natal rate has so far not responded to the
measures that have brought about a reduction in the general infant
mortality rate.
There was a reduction in the number of cases of infectious disease,
owing in the main to a fall in the incidence of measles, for in 1958 there
were only 614 cases of measles compared with 1,402 in the previous year.
There was also a slight reduction in the number of cases of whooping
cough notified. No case of diphtheria occurred during the year, nor
was there a case of poliomyelitis. In 1957, 11 cases of poliomyelitis were
notified, of which 9 were confirmed, and in 1956, there were 23 confirmed
cases. Dysentery of the Sonne type continued to be a nuisance, and the
was an increase from 32 cases in 1957 to 195 in 1958, the majority
occurring in the summer or early autumn. Most of these cases were
associated with an outbreak in one particular school. As regards
infectious disease there is little of further note to report except to
mention that in the latter months of 1957 and the early part of 1958
Battersea was affected by the outbreak of "Asian" influenza. It is not
possible to say how many cases occurred, but undoubtedly the illness
was widespread, although fortunately of a mild type. Many children
schools were affected as well as the adult population, and the disease
petered out in the early months of the year.
I referred in my Annual Report for 1956 to the increasing toll that
some diseases such as high blood pressure and diseases of the heart
blood vessels (coronary arterial disease) is taking, particularly in males
in what is probably the most productive period of life. In 1958, there
were 171 deaths from coronary arterial disease and angina, compared
with 168 in 1957. This, however, does not give the full picture, because
of the 171 deaths in 1958 from this cause 106 were in men. In the age
groups 25-45 and 45-65, the contrast between the sexes is even more
marked. For instance, in the age group 25-45, 5 males died compared
with 2 females, but in the age group 45-65, 40 males died compared with
only 3 females. The trend of increasing deaths with a particularly heavy
incidence in males in the age groups 25-65 continues. It will be asked