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6
PREFACE
Public Health Offices,
Ilford.
September, 1951.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the Borough of Ilford.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I submit herewith the Annual Report on the Health Services for the
year 1950.
During the year the standard of health of the borough was well
maintained, and the various indices compare favourably with those for the
rest of the country. The Infant Mortality Rate was once more the lowest
we have recorded, being 18 7 deaths per 1,000 live births, as compared with
29 8 for England and Wales, and 26 3 for the Administrative County of
London. A sobering thought, however, is the fact that the rate for
illegitimate children is about three times that for those born legitimately.
The still-birth rate, which is not so easy to control, shows a further
welcome drop from 22 6 to 15 5.
The death-rate has again shown a slight rise, from 9.5 to 9.7 per
1,000 of the population, this being due to the greater proportion of aged
persons amongst us, and more deaths accordingly from diseases of the
heart and blood-vessels, and cancer. Preventive medicine has had great
success in the past in controlling scourges such as smallpox, cholera and
typhoid; is there any possibility of the control of cancer and atherosclerosis
(the main cause of degenerative disease of the heart and blood-vessels)?
Research on both these topics is proceeding apace. There are suggestions
which are receiving much attention. One is that one form of cancer, that
of the lungs, may be due to excessive smoking, and another is that
atherosclerosis may possibly be made worse by excessive consumption of
foods, such as eggs, that contain considerable proportions of a fatty
substance known as cholesterol. Neither suggestion can vet be accepted
as proven, but if they do, are we, as specialists in preventive medicine,
attempt to persuade people to reduce smoking and the overeating of certain
foods which hitherto have been considered beneficial? No doubt man;,
people will prefer to take the risk of not living so long.
Between the ages of 5 and 15, eight children died. Five of these
deaths were due to accidents, on the roads and in the home. Two were
the result of tuberculosis. Thus seven out of the eight deaths might
possibly have been prevented.
The birth-rate continues to fall and is now 13.2, as compared with
14.5 the previous year and 15 8 the year before that. This fall in the
birth-rate, combined with the prolongation of life caused by the introduction
of life-saving antibiotics such as penicillin, Chloromycetin and
aureomycin, will in the decades to come still further increase the pre
portion of old people among us and intensify what is already one of our
most difficult problems, the care of the aged.
During the year there was one case of faucical diphtheria, which mad:
a good recovery. The numbers of children immunised at our clinics is
showing a considerable fall, from 2,811 in 1949 to 2,096; those done by
general practitioners of which we have records were 1,010 as compared
with 1,548 the previous year.