View report page

2
ANNUAL REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
FOR THE YEAR 1953
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Acton, W.3.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Borough of Acton.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I submit the Annual Report of the health of the Borough of
Acton for the year 1953.
Statistics are always of interest and I should like to draw
attention to some of the figures in the report. The infantile
mortality rate of children under one year is 25.7 per 1,000 live
births; this is not so good as in 1952 when the figure was 18.6 per
1,000 live births. The chief cause of death in children under one
year was congenital defects and prematurity, and I am afraid that
we do not yet know how to attack these problems.
The corrected birth rate was 12.03 per 1,000 of the population,
as compared with 13.21 in 1952. The births outnumber deaths in
1953, and wherever this is the situation, it is clear that the population
of this area is growing.
There were two deaths of children under two years of age due
to gastro-enteritis, and these occurred during the summer months,
although the year was notably deficient in hot weather.
Included in the body of the report is a brief summary of statistics
over the last ten years. Two important deductions can be made
from this table. The first is that the maternal mortality rate is very
low; there have been no maternal deaths during this period except
in 1945, and this tends to show that care and skill devoted to the
birth of children in the district either at home or in hospital are