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3
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER
OF HEALTH FOR 1969
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the London Borough of Wandsworth.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the pleasure of presenting to you the fifth Annual Report
on the health of the London Borough of Wandsworth covering
the year ended 31st December, 1969.
In the statistical section of the Report, the birth and death rates
for England and Wales and Greater London are shown for purposes
of comparison and in this preamble, for convenience of
reference, the corresponding rates are shown in brackets after the
rate for the Borough.
The civilian population of the Borough, as estimated by the
Registrar-General, was 319,190, a decrease of 2,530 compared with
the previous year. The total number of live births was 5,231 which,
compared with 5,635 for 1968 gives an adjusted birth rate of 15.7
per 1,000 of the population compared with 16.8 for 1968. The
number of deaths at all ages was 4,228 as against 4,571 last year,
so that the adjusted death rate was 11.0 per 1,000 of the population,
showing a decrease compared with 1968. The total number of
deaths of infants under one year was 105, giving an infant mortality
rate of 20 per thousand live births, an increase of 0.5 per
thousand. The perinatal mortality rate, which is based on the sum
of the number of stillbirths and the number of deaths at ages under
one week per 1,000 total live and still births was 24.7, a slight
increase over the figure for 1968. In 1969, three women died from
causes associated with childbirth, giving a maternal mortality rate
of 0.56 per 1,000 live and still births.
A total of 2,190 notifications of communicable diseases was
received in 1969 compared with 1,487 in 1968, the increase being
due to the fact that 1969 was "measles year". There was the
usual amount of work in investigating the environmental aspects
of cases, particularly those possibly concerned with food handling
such as dysentery, food poisoning and the enteric group of illnesses.
The number of cases of confirmed dysentery investigated was
120 as against 133 in 1968 and there were 46 cases of proved
food poisoning, mainly due to salmonella organisms, the various