View report page

2
ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
FOR THE YEAR 1954
Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Acton, W.3
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Borough of Acton.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In submitting this Annual Report for 1954 I should like to
draw attention to the very satisfactory position of the death rate
of children under one year. In all there have been 16 deaths of
children under one year, and this gives a mortality rate of 16.4
which, when compared with last year's figures of 25.7, shows a
marked decrease. In the year 1900 approximately 168 children
died to 1,000 live births, and one is able to realise that some great
factor has occurred to bring about this great change. I believe this
has really been due to the education of the public and the provision
of ante-natal and child welfare clinics, for most of the deaths that
occurred in this group during the year were due to some congenital
defect of the child, or prematurity, which are not controllable by
medical science at the moment. Two deaths of infants were
due to gastro-enteritis; in 1900 forty-eight children died from
this disease. This is really a very satisfactory record to place before
you.
With regard to infectious disease, there were 2 cases of poliomyelitis
during the year and 87 cases of measles, which is small
compared with the previous year, when there were 546 cases of
measles,