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namely, 27.6. The number of babies who died in the first
year of life per thousand live births during 1951 was 8 compared
with 12 in 1950. The rate for 1951 compares favourably
with a rate of 29.6 for the country as a whole. It is necessary
to point out that the trend of infant mortality in a district such
as this, based as it is on relatively small number of deaths, must
not be judged by small annual fluctuations which may be you
to fortuitous circumstances, but over a period of years and
by this criterion our figures are very satisfactory.
There were no maternal deaths during the year, which
reflects credit on the local midwifery services, bearing in mind
the fact that there were 387 live births during the year, in
addition to 9 still births.
The incident of infectious disease within the District
continued to be very low. No case of diphtheria was notified
during the year under review, and in fact only 2 cases
of this disease have occurred in the District since 1942. Although
this is eminently satisfactory, there is an implied denger
in the freedom from this disease in that the young mothers
of to-day have never seen a child with diphtheria or heard
of a child recently dying from this cause. There is a noticeable
tendency for diphtheria immunisation to be neglected in
many cases. It cannot be too strongly stressed, however,
that our present freedom from this disease is dependent on a
continued high level of immunisation of young children as
a group and parents should realise that they have both a public
and a private duty to perform in this matter.
Although there were 682 cases of measles there was
only one death from this cause. 134 cases of whooping cough
were notified without a single death. These two diseases,
with the exception of tuberculosis, are the two most important
infectious diseases experienced at the present time, leaving out
for the moment the unpredictable incidence of poliomyelitis.
Constant vigilance has to be exercised in regard to the
prevention of smallpox. As a result of the Brighton epidemic
in 1950/51, 22 contacts were traced to this area and vaccination
was carried out by the Health Department in most cases
and intensive supervision exercised during the danger period
On two other occasions ships arrived in nearby ports carrying
a case of smallpox and contacts were traced to this area. Vac
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