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4
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Metropolitan Borough
of Lewisham.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I submit my report for the health department for the year 1957.
Vital statistics
The Registrar General's estimate of the population in midyear 1957
at 220,900 was 1,200 less than his estimate for midyear 1956. The decrease
from the 1951 census figure of 227,576 therefore continues steadily. The
crude birth rate for the year at 14.8 again shows a slight increase on the
previous year and the adjusted birth rate (allowing for age and sex
distribution of the population) is also again higher at 14.1. The crude
death rate at 11.0 shows a small decrease on the previous year. The infant
mortality rate at 16 was 3 down on the previous year and is the lowest
on record. This rate is divisible into two parts, the neonatal rate (i.e.
one month of age) and the rest of the first year rate. The neonatal rate
came down from 16 to 12; but the rest of the first year rate increased
from 3 to 4. The stillbirth rate at 18 was almost the same as the previous
year, and the combined stillbirth and infant death rate (reproductive
wastage) at 33 was again the lowest on record. The various comparative
figures of general statistics since the beginning of the century are shown
in table 10.
Infectious disease other than tuberculosis
The total number of notifications received (including 247 for tuberculosis)
was 3,761, which is over double the number in the previous year.
This was more than accounted for by the large increase in measles cases,
which were 2,728 last year as against 206 in the previous year. Dysentery
cases showed a welcome drop (129 compared with the high figure of the
previous year—579). The type of dysentery now prevalent, which tends
to show itself particularly in schools, is one over which our control
measures are not very effective. Poliomyelitis had a low incidence,
there being only 15 cases as against 26 the previous year and 63 the year
before. Although many children have been vaccinated against poliomyelitis
I do not think that the drop in cases was in the main due to this as
insufficient vaccinations had been performed. It is hoped that with more
vaccine becoming available (whether from British or overseas sources)
a high proportion of children will be protected and that it will be possible
to extend this protection to other special groups, such as expectant
mothers.
Tuberculosis
The number of new notifications showed a slight increase on the
previous year, though well down on the years before that. The number of
cases (and the rate) appears therefore to be coming down irregularly in a
series of steps and there is considerably more work required—medically,