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Public Health Department,
Town Hall,
Wood Green, N. 22.
July, 1962.
To THE MAYOR ALDERMEN and COUNCILLORS
of the BOROUGH OP WOOD GREEN.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I beg to present my Annual Report for the year 1961.
As Medical Officer of Health for the Borough, I feel that 1
am extremely fortunate in having been able to state in so many
Annual Reports that "the year under review was once again uneventful".
This has certainly made my yearly survey less exciting
and undoubtedly less interesting - than would otherwise have been
the case. None the less, it clearly points to the happy position
in which Wood Green has found itself for so many years. This has
been largely due to the careful planning which has gone into the
shaping of the Borough, and to the vigilence which my predecessors
as Medical Officers of Health have exercised. Our present duty
is equally clear, and could be reduced to the single, time-worn
phrase "that which wehave, we hold" This certainly typifies the
duty of the Public Health Department, a duty which the Department
has always accepted and will continue to accept.
The vital statistics for 1961 were again satisfactory, and
compare well with those of preceding years. The death rate was
11.3, slightly lower than the figure recorded for the previous year.
The birth rate rose from 14, 2 in 1959 and 15.0 in 1960 to 15. 7 in
1961. This rise is very small, perhaps too small to have any real
significance. Nevertheless it should be noted. The infantile
mortality rate, i.e. the number of infants who died during the first
year of life per thousand live births, was 26.8 as against 30, 4
in 1960 and 20.71 in 1959. With such a comparatively small number
of births, these figures are useful mainly for comparative purposes.
None the less every infant death continues to be scrutinised with
the greatest care, to attempt a still greater decrease. There
were no deaths from puerperal sepsis; indeed, no deaths took place
during childbirth. In point of fact, during the past 10 years
only four deaths took place during childbirth, of which none was
due to sepsis. This is a highly satisfactory situation, due to
a variety of causes better midwifery, better ante-natal care and
the almost incredible advances witnessed in the use of antibiotics.
The number of infectious diseases notified during 1961 was
considerably in advance of those notified during the previous year,
867 as against 229, This was more than due to the fact that 1961
was a "measles year", 763 cases of measles being reported, as against
21 in 1960. The infectious sickness rate for the year therefore
showed a corresponding increase, 18.16 as compared with 4,75 during
1960. Since the increase in measles notifications accounted for
3