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COULSDON AND PURLEY URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL.
Ladies and Gentleman,
I beg to present to you my Annual Report for 1950, this
being my nineteenth report as your Medical Officer of Health.
Only slight variations have been made in its arrangement
compared with previous Reports, and it is hoped much of the
information which has been included will be useful for purposes
of reference during the year.
It is pleasing to be able to report that, as judged by the
vital statistics, the year 1950 was a favourable one from the
point of view of the-public health. The greatest improvement was
in the infant mortality rate, which, together with the stillbirth
and neonatal mortality rates, was much the lowest yet experienced
in this District. This saving of infant lives tends to compensate
for the low birth rate. The latter has steadily dropped since
the post-war peak in 1946, until it has now reached the lowest
pre-war average.
The crude death rate was slightly higher than in 1949 as
was the corrected death rate, but both remained below the postwar
average and considerably lower than the death rate of the
Country as a whole. Unfortunately, after a clear year in 1949,
there were two maternal deaths, with the result that the maternal
mortality rate was relatively high, whereas, nationally, this rate
was the lowest ever recorded.
The incidence of infectious disease increased somewhat,
but this was chiefly due to the prevalence of mild scarlet fever,
and measles towards the end of the year. Apart from tuberculosis,
however, there was only one death among residents from
the notifiable infectious diseases. The case rate from tuberculosis
was the average for recent years, but the death rate from this
disease again decreased.
Poliomyelitis was also rather prevalent nationally, while
locally there were more than the average number of cases, but
the total was relatively small. Even at its peak, in this Country
the risks from this disease have been far below those from road
accidents. It was unfortunate that press publicity contributed
to a decrease in diphtheria immunisation, undue emphasis being
given to the comparatively small number of cases which developed
paralysis following certain prophylactic injections. The minute
dimensions of this risk can be appreciated when it is noted that
not one of the 175 cases of polimyelitis which occurred in Surrey
in 1950 followed a recent injection, although about 34,000 children
received approximately 50,000 diphtheria immunisation injections
in the County during that year.
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