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ANNUAL REPORT
of the
MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
For The Year 1964
December, 1965
To the Chairman and Members of the
Ruislip-Northwood Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Nineteen sixty-four was the last complete year during which the District survived as an
entity in its own right. It is with satisfaction that it can be reported that, as in the case of the
last few years, there was no untoward happening to cause any undue alarm from the public health
point of view. The success of a public health department may, I think, be measured by how little
needs to be reported—it is, indeed, only when some major epidemic becomes important news that
the existence of the department comes to the public notice at all.
The vital statistics are set out in the succeeding pages in the usual form. It will be seen that the
corrected live birth rate of 14.3 compares with the rate for England and Wales of 18.4, while the
death rate of 9.9 compares with the national rate of 11.3. Fifteen infants died under the age of one
year, and the causes of these deaths—which are set out in the report—show that they are caused
by conditions the causes of which are very imperfectly understood. Much research is needed into
these conditions before any great reduction in this infantile mortality can be brought about. It is
pleasing to note, however, that the local infantile mortality rate is only 14.4 compared with the
national rate of 20.0. A further cause for satisfaction is that there was no maternal death; from
all this one can congratulate the ante-natal, midwifery and health visiting services on a most
valuable contribution to the well being of the community.
The principal causes of death were diseases of the heart and arteries and cancer, and, as in
recent years, infectious disease played a very minor role. Research into the principal causes of death
is being pushed along in all the advanced countries of the world, but the real causes still elude the
investigators everywhere. Lung cancer cases showed a welcome fall—from 51 to 36, but cases in
women were reduced only by 1—10 in 1963 and 9 in this year. The association between heavy
cigarette smoking and lung cancer is too well known to need emphasis here, but it cannot be
repeated too often that lung cancer is largely a preventable disease, and many sufferers may have
only themselves to blame. While a fall in the number of cases is of course welcome, it cannot be
assumed that this will continue, and the incidence of this condition will need to be watched with
very great interest.
The work of preventing infectious disease by immunisation was continued on the accepted
lines. This becomes more and more uphill work, for the simple reason that in the absence of
disease the stimulus to many parents to have protection for their children is absent. Why protect
against something which is not there? This is another example of success making continued
public acceptance of a measure more difficult. Who worries about poliomyelitis now ? The position
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