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TO THE
MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS
OF THE
BOROUGH OF SOUTHGATE
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen
I have the honour to present the Annual Report for the year
1964. This will be my last annual report and the last report for the
Borough of Southgate. It is to me a doubly nostalgic occasion
because it terminates the very happy association I have enjoyed with
Southgate over the past 33 years, first as Assistant School Medical
Officer and finally as Medical Officer of Health. On an occasion
such as this— in a sense a farewell to the Borough of Southgate—
one is irresistably drawn to look back over the years so far as the
health records go and this takes us to 1896.
Over these 68 years the advance in knowledge and understanding
of infections, the saving of infant life and the greatly increased
life span are achievements which must have seemed beyond the
dreams of the Medical Officers of Health of those early days. I have
done a series of graphs to illustrate some of these advances and
together with explanatory notes these are to be found on pages 33
to 36 at the end of this report.
To return to this year's report, although substantially complete,
a few items, e.g. number of illegitimate births, etc., are not yet to
hand from the Registrar-General.
In 1964 there was a slight regression in the birth rate which rose
consistently each year from 1958 to 1963. This year, with 965 live
births, the rate per 1.000 population was 13.48 against 15.63 last
year. The crude death rate was 11.79 compared with 13.55 in 1963.
The corrected death rate for 1964 cannot yet be estimated. Again
there were no maternal deaths, the last such death occurring in 1959.
The infant mortality rate, i.e. the number of infants who died
during the first year of life per 1,000 live births was 15.54. This,
although higher than last year, compares very favourably with the
figures of 18.7 for the county and 20.9 for England and Wales for
1963.
The number of infectious diseases notified was 257 compared
with 1,560 last year. Measles notifications were 148 against 1,104,
and dysentery notifications 18 against 244 in 1963.
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