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3
Mr. Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough of Ealing.
The presentation of the Annual Report on the health of the
Borough of Ealing in the year 1950 affords me an opportunity
of reviewing the general position with regard to the health of the
citizens and the functioning of the various health services in the
Borough. It is particularly appropriate that such a review should
be made during this year 1951, which is the Jubilee celebration
year of the incorporation of the Borough. I have therefore taken
the opportunity of commenting upon a few items from the report
of your Medical Officer of Health for the years 1900 to 1902 which
covers the period of your attaining the status of a Borough. The
matters of most interest at that time were of course the rapid
development of the Borough from a housing point of view, the
handling of the sewage and water supplies to the quickly developing
districts and the incidence of infectious diseases.
Taking the three years 1900-1902 and making an average of
incidence of the three major mortality diseases among the infectious
conditions at that time notifiable, namely, Smallpox, Enteric
Fever and Diphtheria, a comparison with the position to-day
shows a dramatic change. If one were to compare the population
of that time (which was approximately 33,000) with the population
of to-day (approximately 190,000) one would have to estimate the
incidence of smallpox in the Borough to-day as 25 cases a year with
6 deaths, enteric fever as 70 cases a year with 12 deaths and
diphtheria at 240 cases a year with 36 deaths. One would therefore
be planning, had there been no change in the situation, for
335 cases of these diseases during the year and a mortality of 54
cases. When I inform you that we have during the past year
had no cases of smallpox, no cases of diphtheria, and only four
cases of enteric fever in the Borough, with not a single death
reported, you will appreciate the great change that has come over
infectious diseases as a health problem during your period of Local
Government. This result has been achieved by ceaseless vigilance,
much educational work on the part of your Health Department,
and the keeping abreast of advances in knowledge regarding the
control of these diseases. It is a matter on which I think the
Borough might well be congratulated, for apart from the tremendous
cost involved in the handling of infectious disease on the scale that
was faced in the years 1900 to 1902, the amount of human suffering
that has been abated is something upon which no price can be
placed.
Two other matters are deserving of mention in this connection,
firstly, the continuous reduction in the infant mortality
rate from about 112 per 1,000 at the commencement of the century