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REPORT
of the Medical Officer of Health
for the year 1954
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to present to you the Annual Report on the health and
sanitary conditions of the Borough for the year 1954, the third year
for which I have had the privilege of being responsible for the health
services in this Area. As in previous reports, most aspects of our
work are covered, and in this introduction I refer mainly to one or
two of the more interesting features of the work as they appeared
during the year.
In my last Report, I drew attention to the slight reduction in the
population of the Borough. In 1954, however, there was an increase
from 331,000 to 333,900. This is associated with the new Housing
Estates which have arisen in the Borough and to which families
from other parts of London came. I make a little more reference
later on to this question as a health and social problem. The birth
rate was 13.27, a slight decrease from the previous year; while the
standardized death-rate was 12.58, slightly lower than that of 1953.
The infant mortality rate was 19.1. This figure is the lowest ever
recorded in Wandsworth and is below that for the County of London
and England and Wales which in 1954 was 20.7 and 25.5 respectively
There were two deaths from causes associated with childbirth.
The number of cases of infectious disease notified was less than in
the previous year owing to the diminished incidence of measles and
whooping cough. The number of cases of tuberculosis which were
primarily notified remained the same but the number of cases
transferred from other Authorities showed a big increase—342 as
compared with 253. The total number of new cases which came to
the notice of the department, therefore, during 1954 was 738 compared
with 663 in the previous year. This increase is associated with