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REPORT
of the Medical Officer of Health
for the year 1963
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Wandsworth
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have pleasure in presenting to you the Annual Report on the
health and sanitary conditions in the Borough for the year 1963,
which follows the general form of previous Reports.
The publication of the 1961 Census showed the population of
Wandsworth as nearly 8,000 more than the estimate for 1960; the
Registrar General's estimate of the mid-year population in 1963
was 348,450 which is 640 more than 1962.
The crude birth rate was 18.3 per thousand persons living, a
very slight increase over the previous year. After taking into
account the area comparability figure, the adjusted rate works out
at 17.5 as against 17.4 for last year, a barely perceptible change.
The rate for England and Wales as a whole was 18.2 and for
London 20.1.
The crude death rate for the year was 14.9 per thousand compared
with 14.4 for 1962 and the adjusted rate 11.08 as against
11.2, the changes again being minimum. The corresponding figures
for England and Wales and London were 12.1 and 12.4.
The number of deaths of children under one year of age was 126
which was 4 more than the previous year and this gives an infant
mortality rate of 19.6 per thousand live births, as compared with
19.3 for 1962. There were 3 deaths from puerperal causes in 1963
compared with 2 for 1962, a maternal mortality rate of 0.46 per
thousand births.
The incidence of infectious diseases did not present any particular
features except for the expected increase in the number of
measles cases, since 1963 was a measles year; there were in fact
3,427 as against 691 for 1962. I reported last year a comparatively
low figure for whooping cough cases, namely, 54; there was an
increase in 1963 to 337 cases. The majority of these cases, however,
were mild and in some at least the diagnosis may have been