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INTRODUCTION
To the Chairman and Members of the Public Health Committee.
I have the honour to present my Report. The health of the Borough
during 1960 shows improvement in many respects.
The estimated mid year population has increased by 290; the
birth rate has increased by over 1 per 1,000 though it is still 3 per 1,000
less than the figure for England and Wales ; live births for the first
time since 1949 exceeded 1,000. Deaths are 34 fewer this year and the
death rate is less than that of England and Wales. The accident death
rate remains the same as last year, though there were 12 fewer deaths.
Only one rate has not shown a general improvement. This rate is the
illegitimate infant death rate, which is almost double the figure for
1959. This is related to the increase in illegitimate births which is
part of a general rise in England and Wales.
The number of new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis again fell
and this was confirmed by the results now available of a Mass Radiography
Survey in 1959 conducted in the central part of the Borough.
Out of 3,515 persons examined, 11 new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis
and 35 cases with chest abnormalities were discovered. In the 1956
Annual Report it was noted that out of 11,974 persons examined in
various parts of the Borough, 25 new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis
and 158 cases with chest abnormalities were recorded.
Intolerance to drugs is still a barrier to the early treatment of
many cases of tuberculosis but this difficulty should not discourage
a thorough search for the early case by Mass X-Ray.
Vaccination against Poliomyelitis became freely available to all
persons up to the age of 40 years and to a further four priority groups,
irrespective of age. Since 1958 evening immunisation clinics for adults
have been held twice a month at a convenient centre and there has
been a satisfactory response. At the end of the report a Table shows
the number of poliomyelitis immunisations for all ages carried out by
family doctors and at immunisation clinics. There is an increase in
the number of immunisations at 18 to 40 years of age. At present a
fourth reinforcing immunisation is being carried out for a group at
special risk which include school children up to the age of 12. The
Ministry of Health has recommended vaccination by general
practitioners for all persons over the age of 40.
There seems no doubt that the immunisation scheme is having an
effect on the incidence of poliomyelitis in the borough. Though the
number in non-epidemic years was small it is noteworthy that there
have been no cases of paralytic poliomyelitis for two successive years.
A section of the report shows a careful control of other infectious
diseases including measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, diphtheria
and dysentery and the maintenance of a satisfactory vaccination rate
against smallpox. The co-operation of the medical practitioners was
a feature of this work.
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