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MEDICAL OFFICER'S ANNUAL REPORT
Public Health Department.
Telephone: Town Hall,
HAYes 1901
Hayes, Middlesex.
May 1959.
To the Chairman and Members of the Council.
Mr. Chairman Ladies and Gentlemen
The vital statistics for 1953 follow the pattern of
those in recent years. There has been an increase in the
birth rate and a decrease in the death rate. The infant
death rate has increased but the majority of these deaths
were in infants aged less than 4 weeks and were due to
congenital defects or prematurity. The infant death rate
is usually looked upon as a measure of the standard of
preventive care in a district, but it is possible that some
babies who might previously have been stillborn are now
being born alive, only to die within a month, i.e. care of
the foetus has improved, but not sufficiently.
The incidence of infectious disease during the year
compares favourably with that of previous years. The number
of cases of measles (339) was greater than that expected
from the figures for previous years. This was due
to the fact that the 1959 epidemic started some months
earlier than usual in November 1958, it was unusual in
that the children first affected were in the group under 5
years of age while the infant school children usually
the first to succumb were infected later.
Early in the year supplies of American and Canadian
single tested vaccine became available for protection
against poliomyelitis and there was an enormous increase
in the number of people whom it was possible to protect.
Children who had received two injections previously were
offered a third re inforcing dose and the age limits of the
scheme were thrown open to include all persons from the age
of 6 months to 26 years together with expectant mothers
of all ages Many employees were vaccinated at their place
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