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WANSTEAD AND WOODFORD BOROUGH COUNCIL
To THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND COUNCILLORS,
BOROUGH OF WANSTEAD AND WOODFORD.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to submit my Annual Report on the Health Services
made the Borough for the year 1951. As in my report for 1950, reference is
made to the personal health services under Part III of the National Health
Service Act Administered by the Essex County Council and decentralised
to the Forest Health Area Sub-Committee of the County Health Committee.
An account of the working of the School Health Service as it affects the
borough is also submitted.
Vital Statistics
The total number of live births for the year was 768, this figure being
79 less than that of the previous year. From the tables on pages 6 and 8
it will be seen that there has been a drop in the birth rate since 1947 during
Which year this rate reached the highest level in the history of the Borough.
The present figure of 12.4 per 1,000 is lower than the average figure for the
Pre-war year, 1934-1939, which was 13.2. The number of deaths occurring
in 1951 was 668, an increase of 63 on the figure for 1950, but a decrease of
19 on that for 1949. The death rate per 1,000 is 10.8, which is slightly
above the average for the post-war years (10.5). Contrasting these figures
with those for England and Wales, it is found that the latter are 15.5 and
12.5 respectively.
The infant mortality rate, i.e., the death rate of infants under one year
of age per 1,000 live births, reached the unprecedented low level of 14.2
as cpmpared with 18.9 in 1950 and 29.6 for the whole of England and
Wales in 1951.
Infectious Disease
For the third successive year no case of diphtheria occurred. Vigorous
measures carried out to secure that a maximum number of children
were protected by immunisation against this disease. The total number of
children receiving primary immunisation was 810.
No case of poliomyelitis (infantile paralysis) occurred during the year.
1,085 cases of measles were notified as compared with 293 in 1950;
the disease was of a mild type. Cases of whooping cough also showed an
Increase to 427 as contrasted with 157 in 1950.
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