View report page

3
PREFACE.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich.
Madam, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit the Forty-third Annual Report on the health of
the Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich, and in doing so, I desire to record my
deep regret at the death of Dr. Macmillan on the 21st November, 1043, and to
acknowledge my personal indebtedness to him for the help and wise counsel he
gave to me since my appointment as Deputy Medical Officer of Health.
In accordance with the instructions of the Ministry of Health, the report is
again an abridged one, and certain figures normally incorporated are omitted
for security reasons.
The Registrar General estimates that there was a slight increase in the population
during 1943. There was again an increase in the number of live births
allocated to Woolwich, the birth rate being the highest since 1924. The death
rate was slightly higher than in 1942, as also was the infant mortality rate (35—34
in 1942) due in the main to an increase in the number of deaths from congenital
conditions. The number of births was 2,174, the number of deaths under one
year was 77, and the total number of deaths was 1,558. Details of caupes of death
will be found in Table No. 1. Maternal deaths numbered 4 (1.79 per 1,0()0
total births),
The scarcity of labour and materials continued to be a problem in the work
of the sanitary section of the Department, but nevertheless satisfactory results
were obtained by the sanitary inspectors. The extermination of rats claimed a
considerable portion of the sanitary inspectors' time, particularly in the latter half
of the year, following the specific directions of the Ministry of Food.
The number of cases of scarlet fever was nearly double that of 1942. Fortunately
the disease continues to be mild in character and not one death occurred. During
the past five years only two deaths in Woolwich have been attributed to scarlet
fever, one in 1939 and one in 1941. The incidence of measles is interesting. Prior
to the War, epidemics occurred regularly every two years, but in 1940, which should
have seen the start of an epidemic, the number of cases in the Borough was only
83, and in 1941 the number was 538. The winter of 1942 saw the commencement
of an epidemic (723 eases being notified in that year), which continued all through
1943 (1,227 cases) with a slight decrease in the last two months, but increasing
again in the early months of 1944. No wholly satisfactory explanation can be
given, although the war generally, and evacuation in particular, in upsetting the
habits of the people and the ratio of susceptibles to immunes, must have some
bearing on the experience.