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To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough of
Dagenham.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have pleasure in submitting my report on the health of the
Borough of Dagenham for the year 1950. For the first time since
Dagenham became a municipal entity (in 1926) the birth rate has
fallen below that for England and Wales as a whole, 15.36 compared
with 15.8. 15.36 is the crude birth rate, when the comparability
factor of 0.95 is applied the adjusted rate is 14.59. This
reduction is an indication of the stabilization of the population and
of the fact that the population is ageing, or in other words that the
number of persons of the reproductive age compared with the total
population is diminishing.
The crude death rate was 6.92, the adjusted rate being 11.35,
which compares favourably with that for the country as a whole
which was 11.6. The comparability factor given for Dagenham for
purposes of computing the death rate is 1.64.
It is very gratifying to be able to record that for the second
year in succession there were no maternal deaths.
INFECTIOUS DISEASES. There has been a marked increase in the notifications
of both Measles and Whooping Cough,
but probably the severity of attack has been
light; there were no deaths attributed to Whooping Cough, but
one death was assigned to Measles.
With regard to active prevention of Whooping Cough, the
Whooping Cough Immunisation Committee of the Medical Research
Council has now released some very informative findings
gleaned as results of extensive research over a number of years.
These may be considered as encouraging but it must be borne in
mind that the effectivity of the best antigens so far prepared falls
far short of the Diphtheria prophylactics in common use.
One case of Diphtheria was notified in the person of a man
aged 22. He had not been immunised. It might be of interest here
to quote from the Annual Report of my predecessor 20 years
ago
"The light incidence of Diphtheria in the country as a
whole during 1931 was reflected in the small number of local
notifications received, these being only 207 as against 383 in
1930."
Compare this with 1950 when, as mentioned above, one case only
was reported and that was not fatal. In the year 1931, 12 deaths
occurred from Diphtheria.