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1
Public Offices,
Enfield, Middlesex.
August, 1946.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER
OF HEALTH, 1945
To the Chairman and Members of the Urban District Council of
Enfield.
I have pleasure in presenting my Annual Report on the Health
and Sanitary circumstances of the District for the year 1945.
The most important event of the year was the termination of
hostilities with the consequent disbandment of the Civil Defence
Services which gave to the Health Department the happy prospect of
being able to apply its whole energy to its preventive health
functions.
The vital statistics of the past six years have been satisfactory
in most respects although in the field of infectious diseases the
incidence of tuberculosis and venereal disease has increased. Notwithstanding
this generally satisfactory statistical achievement, it
does appear that the dangers, deprivations, difficulties and disturbances
of the war years must have had some adverse but
indefinably assessable effect on the health and well-being of the
local civilian population. This was particularly noticeable when
the immediate post-war period of stimulation was followed by
complaints of lassitude.
The greatest single factor affecting public health now is the
housing problem, affecting not only the physical but the mental
well-being of the population. In this sphere of public health there
is much work for the Department.
During the year under review the incidence of notifiable
infectious disease was not high except in the case of measles in
which there was a marked increase over the previous year's figures,
but only one patient died. The threatened epidemic of influenza
did not materialise although at one period it appeared to be
imminent.
The number of children immunised against diphtheria during
the year showed an increase over the previous year, but the numbers
accepting this service are not sufficiently high to warrant any sense
of security.
Another danger to public health during the year was the possibility
of importation into the district of Smallpox and Typhus Fever,
with the large volume of air and sea passengers arriving in this