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7
City of Westminister
Public Health Department,
Telephone: Trafalgar 7070 Alhambra House,
31, Charing Cross Road,
W.C.2.
To The Bight Worshipful The Mayor, Aldermen and
Councillors of the City of Westminster.
Mr. Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
I have the honour to present for your consideration a Report on
the health of the City of Westminster during the year 1962.
An examination of the vital statistics set out on page 15 reveals several
changes compared with last year. All the Rates are higher, with the
exception of that relating to deaths of illegitimate infants. Reference
to the analysis of Births, Infant Deaths and Mortality Rates, set out
on page 17 shows that the mortality rates for 1962 in respect of All
Infants, and Legitimate Infants, are the highest for seven years. Why
this should be so is not easy to understand but it must be remembered
that the numbers from which the rates are computed are relatively small,
so that fluctuations are bound to occur from year to year, and the
increases which have occurred in the last two years may not represent
a continuing trend.
I have again included in the Report the adjusted Birth and Death
Rates. These are arrived at by applying Area Comparability Factors,
supplied by the Registrar General, which compensate for variations in
the age and sex composition of the population from district to district.
The adjusted rates can, therefore, be compared directly with similarly
adjusted rates for other districts, and with those for England and Wales
as a whole.
Fortunately, there was no maternal death during 1962, nor were
there any serious outbreaks of infectious disease in Westminster. In
my Annual Report for 1961 I drew attention to the continued need for
vaccination against smallpox as a preventive measure in these days of
high-speed travel between countries. This point was brought vividly
to the fore at the end of 1961 and the early months of 1962, when a case
of smallpox, imported from Pakistan where an epidemic existed, occurred
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