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PREFACE
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Metropolitan Borough of Woolwich.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have pleasure in submitting the Fifty-second Annual Report on the health
and sanitary conditions of the Borough of Woolwich. The Report is prepared along
the lines indicated by the Ministry of Health.
The health of the community has remained generally good. No serious epidemic
has occurred and in no infectious disease does the Woolwich mortality rate exceed
the average for the administrative County of London. Details of the mortality and
morbidity statistics, together with information on the varied work being carried out
by the Health Department, covering an increasingly wide field, may be found in
the body of the Report.
Woolwich is one of the few Metropolitan Boroughs whose population is
increasing at the present time. The Registrar General's estimate of the mid-year
home population is 151,800, being 2,000 more than the estimate for the previous
year. This is accounted for mainly by the movement of population from outside
the Borough to the London County Council's new Avery Hill Estate.
The vital statistics for 1952 are, on the whole, favourable. Although there has
been a small decline in the number of births, the birth rate remains constant at the
same average rate as between the war years. The total number of deaths is 71
fewer than occurred in the previous year. There has been a steady increase in the
survival rate of persons over the age of 65 years. Seventy-two per cent. of Woolwich
people who died were aged 65 years and over, and 42 per cent. of the total deaths
were 75 years of age or more. The corrected death rate was 10 4 per 1,000 of the
population (compared with 117 in 1951) and compared with 12 6 for London and
11.3 for England and Wales. Slightly fewer than a half of the total deaths took
place in hospitals. Despite a sharp rise in the number of deaths immediately following
the London fog early in December, deaths from respiratory diseases were
slightly less than in 1951. Cancer and heart diseases continue to be the chief causes
of death. Cancer accounted for 317 (or 19 per cent.) of the total deaths, being 29
more than in the previous year. There were no deaths as a result of accidents or
diseases associated with pregnancy or puerperal pyrexia.
The infant mortality rate, always well under the National and London averages,
reached a new low record in 1952 at 21 4, the previous lowest being 24 4 in 1950
and 27.2 in 1947. Now, for every 100 live births only two babies fail to reach the
age of one year. There were only 37 stillbirths during the year, giving a stillbirth
rate per 1,000 total births of 16.8.
The incidence of notifiable infectious diseases, with the one exception of
measles, was low. It is now six years since there was a death in the Borough
from diphtheria, and there have been no confirmed cases of diphtheria occurring
during the last three years. Immunisation against diphtheria is best carried out
before the child is 9 months old. During the last war years the Borough Council,
who were then entirely responsible for this work, in common with other local
authorities carried out an intensive campaign directed against ensuring that the
vast majority of children were immunised. Whilst this work has been continued
since the end of the war there is evidence that throughout the community there has
been a falling off of the number of children being immunised. Although the
incidence of this disease has not increased recently, there can be no room for complacency
whilst this state of affairs exists, and efforts to persuade more and more
parents to use immunisation as an adequate safeguard should now be increased.
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