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In calculating the Live Birth Rate and the Death Rate, the crude figures have been adjusted
by the Registrar General's Area Comparability Factors of 0.96 and 1.24 respectively. These factors
may be said to represent a population handicap to be applied to the area, and, when multiplied
by a crude rate, modifies the latter so as to make it comparable with the rate for the country as a
whole or with similarly adjusted rates for any other area; the effect of the comparability factors is
to make allowance for the age and sex distribution of the inhabitants of the district.
Infectious Diseases
Dr. C. Lydon—Deputy Medical Officer of Health
The pattern of infectious disease in this country which altered so considerably during the
first half of the twentieth century, continues to change even though at a less dramatic rate. Diseases
such as pneumonia, puerperal pyrexia and erysipelas, which were responsible for so much mortality
and morbidity in past decades are no longer notifiable, whilst recent additions to the notifiable
infectious disease tables are infective jaundice and leptospirosis.
The following table shows the
incidence of infectious disease in the Borough during 1970: