View report page

i.
COUNTY BOROUGH OF CROYDON.
ANNUAL REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
and
SCHOOL MEDICAL OFFICER
For the Year 1944.
OSCAR M. HOLDEN, G.M., M.D., D.P.H.
To the Chairman and Members of the
Public Health Committee.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I herewith have the honour to present my Seventeenth
Annual Report on the Health activities carried out by the
Council, being the 45th of the series.
The Report retains the abbreviated form followed last year.
The Birth Rate for the year was 19.4 per 1,000, an increase
of 1.00 per 1,000 over 1943.
The Death Rate was 15.1, an increase of 2.00 per 1,000 of
population.
The Infantile Mortality rate was 44 per 1,000 live births, an
increase of 7 per 1,000 upon 1943. The Maternal mortality was
2.17 per 1,000 total live and still births.
These mortality rates all show an increase, possibly accounted
for by five years of war conditions, and, although morbidity rates,
if available, would be a more accurate index of the general health
of the population, there seems to be evidence that the restrictions
and rationing of foodstuffs may be having some adverse effect.
It would be an exaggeration to say that there is a general state of
subnutrition, but it is not unlikely that the restriction of such
articles as milk, butter and meat, is not helping to mainfain High
nutritional standards among all sections of the population.