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PREFACE.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich .
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit the Forty-second Annual Report on the health
of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich. Owing to war-time restrictions, it is
again an abridged report but the material published will, it is hoped, give a general
appreciation of the work of the department and the health of the inhabitants of the
Borough during the year. The restrictions on the publication of figures relating
to local populations still apply and I am unable to publish the usual statistical
information, but it is permissible to say that the Registrar General estimates the
population to be greater than it was in 1941 : that the birth rate was the highest
since 1924 ; the death rate lower than in 1941 and little higher than the mean for
the five years before the war, and the infant mortality rate (34) the lowest ever
recorded. The number of births was 2,036, the number of deaths under one year
was 71, and the total number of deaths was 1,410. The detail of causes of death
will be found in Table No. 1. The number of maternal deaths was 3.
The work of the sanitary section of the Department was carried on to the usual
high standard, despite the difficulties which have arisen owing to the war.
Maternity and child welfare services were operating on practically a pre-war
level, including the medical supervision of toddlers, which it was found possible
to re-institute at the beginning of the year. The initial programme for the provision
of war-time day nurseries was completed with the opening of the Eltham
Nursery and provided places for 187 children.
There was a further rise in the incidence of infectious disease in 1942, due to
a continuance of the epidemics of measles and whooping cough and to an increase
in the number of cases of scarlet fever and dysentery. There was a decrease in
cerebrospinal meningitis and in enteric fever.
Having regard to the rising tendency in the incidence of tuberculosis throughout
the country, to which the Minister of Health called attention in 1941, it is pleasing
to record that the number of cases of tuberculosis notified in Woolwich (249) was
lower than in 1941: indeed, it was only one more than in 1938. The number of
deaths from this disease in 1942 (102) was the lowest ever recorded. In assessing
these figures regard must of course be had to the size of the population which,
although greater than in 1941, was smaller than in 1938.
The need for new measures in the treatment of Scabies was evident from the
continued rise in this disease and a scheme of control was formulated and put into