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CHIGWELL URBAN DISTRICT COUNCIL
To the Chairman and Members of the
Chigwell Urban District Council.
MR. CHAIRMAN, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
I have pleasure in presenting to you the Annual Report including
the report of the Senior Sanitary Inspector, for the
year ending 31st December, 1954.
vital statistics
The birth rate, at 13.7 per 1,000 of the population, continues
to fall; the total death rate, at 9.0 per 1,000 remains unchanged.
Both these figures are significantly below the averages for
England and Wales as a whole, after correction for local differences
in age and sex distribution of the population.
Deaths of infants and still-births also remain at a level much
lower than the average national rate, and again there were
no maternal deaths in the district from pregnancy, childbirth
or abortion.
As in previous recent years, heart disease and cancer are the
main causes of death; these diseases, and related conditions, account
for approximately two out of every three deaths which
occur. Coronary disease and angina alone, accounted for 64 deaths
in 1954, compared with 52 in 1953 and 40 in 1952. If the latest
theories about this disease are correct, these figures should be
taken as a warning by all those who take too much rich food
and too little exercise, especially if accompanied by mental
stress!
infectious diseases.
These have ceased to be of any importance as a cause of
death, owing to improved methods of prevention and treatment.
The newly introduced schemes for detection of, and vaccination
against, tuberculosis have become a routine procedure as
part of the school health service, and have been well received
by the public, and immunisation against whooping cough,
diphtheria and smallpox continues. The clean food campaign
is also making slow, but steady progress, and there is evidence
of an improving standard of commercial and domestic practice
in this respect.
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