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49
However, deaths from vascular lesions of the nervous system continued
to rise as did those from coronary disease and although
pneumonia claimed substantially more deaths, an improvement in
the bronchitis figures provided almost full compensation. Overall
cancer deaths remained static but a decrease of 15 % in lung cancer
afforded a welcome relief to the persistent rise in recent years.
Heart Disease
Cardiovascular and atherosclerotic diseases as a group constitute
the greatest possible challenge to preventive medicine. Each
week, on an average, over 2,200 people in England and Wales die
from coronary disease and the incidence is increasing, particularly
in the case of the middle-aged male. In fact, in males between the
ages of 25 and 45 years, the rate of heart attack has more than
doubled during the past decade. Curiously, coronary disease in a
woman before the age of 45 years is uncommon and it would seem
that, during her child-bearing epoch, her hormones give her a
'built-in' protection.
Recognised as the principal 'killer' complaint of modern times,
this classification, covering as it does, (a) coronary disease, angina,
(b) hypertension with heart disease and (c) other heart disease, was
responsible for 818 deaths (439 males and 379 females) during the
current year. This total, which was an increase of 33 over that of the
previous year, formed 31.9 % of the total of deaths from all causes and
gives a rate of 3.54 per 1,000 of the population. The rate for 1965
was 3.39.
Deaths in the Borough from coronary disease alone accounted
for 617 (363 males and 254 females), a rise of some 11%. The
increase was mainly evident in males over 45 years and in females
over 65 years. Compared with figures of 2.39 and 2.28 for England
and Wales and Greater London respectively (both of which showed
slight advances over the previous year), the Borough rate was
slightly less favourable at 2.67.
Vascular Lesions of Nervous System
Under this classification, which includes cerebral haemorrhage,
embolism and thrombosis, some 316 deaths were recorded during
1966, a rise of 7.1% over the figure for the previous year which
itself had been an increase of 22 % over 1964. Of the present total,
190 were females and, apart from coronary disease, this constituted
the main cause of deaths in females during the year although 125
(66%) occurred in women over the age of 75 years and only 7 in
females under 55.
Cancer
Second only to heart disease as the principal cause of death in
the community, this disease, which has so many psychological