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Infant mortality in Carshalton in 1934 stood at 53.5 deaths per thousand
live births. In 1953 it was 23.3 and has been under 30 for the last
nine years. The risks of maternity have been equally reduced, so much
so that no maternal death (excluding abortion) has been registered in
the last nine years.
Some significant changes have occurred in the realm of infectious
disease. Diphtheria has given way before the advance in immunology
and has now been virtually eliminated from our midst, whereas twenty
years ago more than 50 children annually suffered a long and debilitating
illness from this cause and no year was without its diphtheria
mortality. The strict protection of our water supplies has made enteric
infection a still rarer occurrence, whilst the discovery of the modern
anti-biotics and chemotherapeutic agents has robbed many infections
of their terrors, especially puerperal fever, meningitis and ophthalmia
in the newborn, to mention but a few. Logically enough, those infectious
illnesses due to ultra-microscopic viruses on which the sulpha drugs and
anti-biotics have little effect are now claiming the attention of preventive
medicine in an increasing degree. Influenza and poliomyelitis
are notable examples, the latter disease having now assumed annual
epidemic proportions unknown in this country before the war. The
fight against tuberculosis has been increased by attacks from many
new directions. The results of treatment have been improved by new
surgical procedures and new drugs, whilst mass radiography and
B.C.G. vaccination hold out greater hopes in the field of prevention.
Recent developments, too, in the preparation of an effective vaccine
against whooping cough are promising, though no means yet have
been discovered of preventing measles, which continues to take its
annual toll of child health, with unaltering and relentless regularity.
The last twenty years have seen the creation of a Ministry of
Food. Originally designed to deal with the immediate threat to our
food supplies arising from conditions created by the war, it has, during
its history, made considerable additions to the statutory powers for
controlling the quality and purity of our daily food. The increased
range of commodities and types of investigation thereof made by the
Council as a Food and Drugs Authority is evidence of these increased
powers. The war too introduced an additional risk, apart from the threat
of scarcity. The movements of population, particularly from across the
Atlantic, introduced into this country many varieties of food poisoning
organisms previously unknown to us and this, together with the growing
practice of "eating out," has substantially increased the number of
outbreaks of food poisoning compared with pre-war times. There is
little that can be put to the credit side of war, but it was responsible for
one big advance in public health. The organisation of the arrangements
for food distribution and the satisfaction of the needs of the priority
groups greatly improved the nutritional condition of the great mass of
the lower income groups, particularly of the rising generation. There is
ample evidence available in the records of our Child Welfare and
School Health Services to show that the standard of physical development
in children has never been so high as at the present time.
One of the notable effects of the war from the public health point
of view was the enforced cessation of building development with its
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