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1.
ANNUAL REPORT FOR THE YEAR
1956
To: The Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors of the
Chingford Corporation.
Mr. Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors,
I have pleasure in submitting my Annual Report for the year 1956
upon the health and sanitary circumstances of the Borough.
The estimated population for the year was 46,840.
Vital Statistics: The following vital statistics are worthy of
record: the birth rate improved to 10.5 per thousand from the record
low figure of 9.9 in 1955.
The death rate was 8.3 per thousand, (7.2 in 1955).
Of the total deaths, 392, cancer caused 78, and heart disease and
associated vascular conditions caused 199, these two conditions
amounting to more than 2 deaths out of every 3.
The infant mortality rate, 10.1 per thousand live
births, was the lowest yet recorded: the rate for England and Wales
was 23.8.
Infectious Diseases: Again I am glad to be able to report the absence
of diphtheria. This is the sixth successive year without a single case.
Apart from whooping cough, scarlet fever and dysentery, infectious
fevers showed a marked decline.
A single case of poliomyelitis occurred which was non-paralytic.
Vaccination against this disease commenced in May.
The vaccination of school children, in their 14th year, against
tuberculosis, continued.
A further step forward in the long campaign to improve the
standard of food hygiene was the Pood and Drugs Act, 1955, and the
Pood Hygiene Regulations, 1955 and 1956. The Act came into force on
1st January, 1956.
The Health Department undertook the administrative work involved
in providing a Chiropody Service for Chingford residents of pensionable
age under arrangements made through the Chingford Old People's Welfare
Committee