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3
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 1962.
Vital statistics
The Registrar General's estimate of the population in midyear 1962
on which the rates in this report are based, was 222,170, an increase of
1260 on the previous year's estimate. The census of 1961 showed that
the population at the census was 221,590. The crude birth rate for
1962 at 17.6 again shows an increase (it was 16.9 in the previous year)
and was the highest since 1949. The adjusted birth rate brings this
down slightly to 16.9. The crude death rate at 11.6 is slightly lower
than the 11.7 of the previous year, while the adjusted death rate (allowing
for age and sex distribution of the population) is 11.5. The infant
mortality rate at 18.9 is lower than the 19.6 of 1961; it appears to be
stuck around this figure. The infant mortality rate can be divided into
three parts, the early neonatal rate (under one week of age), the rest of
the neonatal rate (up to one month of age) and the rest of the first year
rate (that is from one month to twelve months). These rates were
respectively 11.8, 1.2 and 5.9. The stillbirth rate at 12.6 was substantially
lower. The various comparative figures of this century are
shown in table 10.
Infectious disease other than tuberculosis
The total number of notifications received (including 103 for tuberculosis)
was 909 which is in all probability by far the lowest total figure
lately recorded. Indeed only on three occasions in the last fifteen years
has it dropped below two thousand, and the lowest previous figure in
this series was 1,452 in 1960. A large part of this present drop no doubt
is accounted for by the fact that it was not a "measles year", but over
the period there have been many other reductions, more particularly in
scarlet fever, tuberculosis and whooping cough. In 1962 dysentery
cases increased, from 92 to 162, but they were again of a mild type,
mainly based on school children and more of a nuisance than anything
else. There were only 423 measles cases against 4,278 the previous
year. For the second year running there were no poliomyelitis cases
and it seems reasonably certain that vaccination was a considerable
factor here. The development of an oral vaccine has still further increased
the ease with which children can be immunised and there seems
no excuse at all, apart from current illness, why parents should run the
risk of not having their children protected.
Tuberculosis
The number of new notifications again decreased—for the sixth
successive year. The total was 103, giving a notification rate of 46 per
100,000 population, again a low record. The death rate from pulmonary
tuberculosis, however, once more increased, this time from 8 to 10
per 100,000 population. I do not think there is any special significance
to be attached to this. The control of tuberculosis, apart from the
treatment of cases, is resolving itself more and more into an active search
for contacts so as to uncover hitherto unknown cases. This is done
primarily by the chest clinic in each case which comes to their notice,
and on a rather wider basis by the mass Xray radiography unit.