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BOROUGH OF BRENTFORD AND CHISWICK
Public Health Department,
Town Hall, Chiswick, W.4.
To the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Borough of Brentford and Chiswick.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present the 25th Annual Report on the
Health and Sanitary Circumstances of the population of the Borough
of Brentford and Chiswick.
The health of the people continued to be good.
The birth rate fell from 14.6l in 1951 to 14.21 in 1952. This
figure has continued to fall since 1946 and is this year again
lower than the average for the whole of England and Wales, which is
15.3.
The death rate fell from 12.49 in 1951 to 11.27 in 1952. The
corresponding national figure was 11.3.
Infant mortality fell to 17.6l per thousand live births. This
is the lowest ever recorded in the Borough, and Graph "A" of the
text shows the progress of infant mortality through the years since
1900. Only a few years ago it was thought that the low infant
mortality reached in New Zealand of 27 per thousand births was
still rather a distant goal difficult of attainment, and so this
figure is extremely satisfactory. It could, however, be reduced
further since deaths from preventable causes such as pneumonia and
prematurity in young infants are included in the total of 15.
The notifications of infectious diseases were lower by 446
during 1952, principally due to a decrease in the incidence of
measles and whooping cough. There was a rise in the figure for
scarlet fever notifications, but the disease was not of a severe
type. Nine cases of poliomyelitis occurred with two deaths, one of
which, however, was due not to the poliomyelitis, but to coronary
thrombosis. Five of these patients suffered from residual
paralysis requiring further treatment.
No case of diphtheria has occurred during the past five years,
and particulars of the immunisation state of the children of the
Borough are included in this Report. Approximately 50% of children
have completed a course of injections to protect them from
diphtheria. There was an increase in the number of infants
receiving vaccination against smallpox during the first year of
life from 25% of infants born in 1951 to 35% of infants born in
1952.
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