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THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
To The Chairman and Members of the Urban District Council of Crayford
Mr, Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report for the year 1960 which has
been prepared on the lines set out in Circular 1/61 of the Ministry of Health.
The Registrar General' s estimate of the mid year population is 30,920
(30,600 in 1959).
The vital statistics supplied, annually, by the General Register Office,
and dealt with below indicate that, broadly speaking, the health of the Urban
District was well maintained The standardised death rate for 1960 was 11 01
per thousand of the home population (9 87 in 1959) compared with 11 5 per
thousand for England and Wales The standardised birth rate was 16. 16 per
thousand estimated home population (15.39 in 1959) compared with a rate of
17 1 per thousand for the country as a whole,. Fourteen infants died during the
first year of life, giving an infant mortality rate of 26,6 per thousand live
births (30,24 in 1959) compared with 21 9 per thousand in England and Wales.
All but six of the infantile deaths were due to congenital abnormalities and
prematurity over which there is little control at present
There was one maternal death associated with childbirth, the first for
three years. Bearing in mind that, during this period, there were 1,583 total
births in the area it may be said that the result, overall,, reflects the
efficiency of the antenatal and obstetrical services as well as the greater
degree of control over puerperal infections made possible by the use of the
antibiotics and chemo-therapeutic substances.
In regard to the infectious diseases, it is pleasing to report that for
the eleventh year in succession, there has been no case of diphtheria in
the Urban District It is, nevertheless, a duty that the public should be.
constantly reminded of the possible return of this disease should the level
of immunisation fall to a sufficiently low level. Already there have been
signs of a recrudescence of the disease in various parts of the country and,
while there were no deaths from this cause in England and Wales during 1959,
there were two deaths in 1960 and seven deaths in the first seven months of
1961 Parents would be well advised to heed this warning and ensure that their
children are kept fully immunised.
For the third year in succession, no case of poliomyelitis occurred in
the District. There can be little doubt that this satisfactory result is,
substantially, due to the intensive poliomyelitis vaccination of children and
young adults in recent years. A further interesting development which may have
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