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Chicken Pox lasting through the middle months of the year. One
fatal case of Cerebro-Spinal Fever was notified.
The ward distribution of notified cases is shown on page 26
The chief causes of deaths, shown in Table 1, were Heart
Disease 166, Cancer 128, Bronchitis 50, Tuberculosis 32, and
Pneumonia 27.
The Infantile Mortality Rate was .1 above last year's Borough
low record of 36.
There were no Maternal Deaths.
Tuberculosis— the figures for the last five years are:—
1941 83 cases notified with 42 deaths
1942 87 „ „ „ 28 „
1943 89 ,, „ „ 37 ,,
1944 106 ,, „ „ 34 ,,
1945 102 ,, ,, ,, 32 ,,
A table showing an analysis of these cases can be seen in
the Appendix.
In reporting on the Dental Service, in the School Section of
this Report, Miss Stewart mentions the regrettable retirement;
through ill-health, of Miss Loretz. I heartily endorse all her
eulogies of Miss Loretz, who will be missed greatly by the mothers
and children attending the Maternity and Child Welfare Clinics
as well as by the schoolchildren, for her kindly and skilful
treatment.
In this, my final Annual Report, I would like to make a brief
record of the work done by individual members of the staff during
the war.
For the purposes of Civil Defence, the Middlesex County
Council was the scheme-making authority, and this Borough Council
acted for them in this area, with Mr. John Skinner, the Town
Clerk, as Borough Controller, and Mr. L. A. Cooper, the
Engineer, in charge of the Rescue, Decontamination and
Demolition Services. I, as Medical Officer of Health, had the
honour of being in charge of the Casualty and First Aid Services
and am indebted greatly to Dr. Macaulay, the County Medical
Officer, and his Staff, for the very willing and valuable help they
gave this branch of the Service throughout the war.
It will be appreciated, in considering the work done by the
Staff, that we had a double duty, viz., to the Public Health and
Social Services and to the Civil Defence Service, which meant that
some of the Staff had to concentrate on the one branch and some
on the other. We were rather later than some, areas in developing
our A.R.P. activities and in consequence, during the last
months of peace, had to put in a good deal of intensive work on
Civil Defence, in which all the Public Health Staff (as distinguished
from the Clinic Staff) were engaged.
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