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3
HEALTH SERVICES.
The Annual Report for 1942 has had to be prepared in a much
abbreviated form in accordance with the instructions of the Ministry
of Health with the result that it is mainly a record of the most
important vital statistics and a summary of the health services
of the Borough. As with the report for 1941 the estimated population
and the birth, death and other rates calculated on the total
population have been omitted.
The infant death rate and the maternal mortality rate remained
low. The number of cases of diphtheria was strikingly small, only
28 cases, the smallest number for many years, and while the number
of cases of scarlet fever, was higher than in the two previous years
it was lower than in the 8 successive years before that. Measles
and whooping cough were still prevalent but less so than in 1941.
There was no impairment of the Maternity and Child Welfare
scheme which continued during the year to bring even more mothers
and children within its scope, thus showing how much this service
is appreciated by the public.
The progress, in establishing war-time nurseries has been
notable. By the end of the year two part-time and six whole-time
nurseries had been opened, the seventh whole-time one was nearly
ready for opening and plans of the eighth had been approved of.
Routine medical inspection had to be curtailed by the omission
of the middle age-group and part-time dental officers had to be
employed instead of whole-time officers but the whole of the
school medical services have been maintained unchanged otherwise.
Owing to the steps taken by the Government in various
directions, including the provision of milk and meals in school,
the nutrition of the children was maintained at a remarkably high
level.
There was an improvement in the cleanliness of the children
which had in the previous year slightly deteriorated and the percentage
of verminous children reached the low level of 3.3 with an
indication of still further improvement.
Unfortunately there was a large increase in the number of
cases of scabies but the hope may be expressed that the steps taken
to treat all active and suspected cases and to deal with contacts
may prove successful in combating the spread of this troublesome
condition.