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5
BOROUGH OF BARNES.
REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH
FOR THE YEAR 1955
PREFACE
The Registrar General supplies local authorities with "Comparability
Factors" in respect of births and deaths, and you will see
that these have been used in the compilation of the various statistics.
I would explain that the use of the factors supplied by the Registrar
General give corrected figures to the local rates, enabling truer comparisons
to be made with the remainder of the country—i.e. as though
the ages and sexes of the local population were in the same proportion
as those for the whole country.
STAFF AND DUTIES
Mr. E. J. Silvester resigned from the position of District Sanitary
Inspector on the 31st March 1955, to take up an appointment with
another authority. The vacancy was filled by Mr. B. Berry, who
commenced duties on 1st July, 1955.
There were no other changes in the Staff of the Public Health
Department during the year.
PREVALENCE OF, AND CONTROL OVER, INFECTIOUS
DISEASES
Generally
The incidence of Infectious Disease during the year was low,
except for an epidemic of measles.
There were only 7 cases of Scarlet Fever notified during the year
as compared with 29 the previous year.
There was an increase in the number of cases of Whooping Cough,
there being 42 cases during the year as compared with 25 in 1954.
There were 489 cases of measles notified during the year—this
being the epidemic year for measles. In the previous year there were
only 5 cases.
There were no cases of Diphtheria in 1955.
Poliomyelitis
During the year there were 8 cases of Poliomyelitis notified—
7 paralytic and 1 non-paralytic. Two of the paralytic cases were not