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i.
COUNTY BOROUGH OF CROYDON.
ANNUAL REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
and
SCHOOL MEDICAL OFFICER
For the Year 1942.
OSCAR M. HOLDEN, G.M., M.D., D.P.H.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Public Health Committee.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present my Fifteenth Annual Report,
being the forty-third of the series dealing with the work of the
Public Health Department and School Medical Services and
including the report on Mayday Hospital.
The report retains the abbreviated form followed last year
necessitated by the circumstances of war.
The Birth-rate for the year was 18.3 per 1,000, an increase
of 4.0 per 1,000 over 1941.
The Death-rate was 12.32, a further decrease of 1.43 per
1,000 of the population.
The Infantile Mortality rate was 39 per 1,000 live births; this
was 2 per 1,000 higher than 1941.
These rates can be stated to be very satisfactory, especially
when the fact that this country had been at war for 3 years is
remembered. The restrictions and rationing of foodstuffs does
not appear to have had any detrimental effect upon the rate of
death.
The incidence of notifiable Infectious Diseases remained low
with the exception of Measles, which was much the same as 1941,
and Scarlet Fever, which showed a considerable increase.