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ANNUAL REPORT OF THE
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH FOR 1943.
The report is again restricted in accordance with
the Ministry of Health Circular 10/44 of the 15th February,
1944.
A summary of vital statistics is appended. Compared
with the rest of the country, and with previous
reports, the health of the inhabitants of the Borough has
been maintained at a high standard.
The low infantile mortality rate (26.01) is an outstanding
fact and most gratifying. It is 6.59 below
that of last year which was up to then the lowest ever
recorded in this Borough. It has been stated recently
that a goal of 25 for the infantile mortality rate of
greater London might well be aimed at in the next ten
years, so that to stabilise or reduce the 1943 record in
Bexley there can be no relaxation and indeed only intensification
of the activities of Maternity and Child
Welfare. The low infantile mortality rate is accompanied
by a low stillbirth rate.
An equally outstanding and gratifying fact is that
there was no death from diphtheria in 1943, when
by December 31st, 70% of children under the age of 15
were immunised and to this must be given the credit.
With varying phases of human resistance and bacterial
infectivity there may be a change in this relationship,
but so far as present evidence goes a high immunisation
rate will mean a low diphtheria rate. Immunisation is
a continuous process and the parents of children approaching
one year old should take advantage of the
facilities offered, as although diphtheria is now becoming
an uncommon disease relaxation of the immunisation
campaign would only lead to the old conditions with the
disease taking a big toll of child life as the diphtheria
germ is still with us.
Scarlet fever was common during the year, but did
not reach the levels of the previous epidemic cycles in
1920-22, 1926 and 1933. The disease was, however, very
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