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PREFACE
To the Chairman and Members of the
Merton & Morden Urban District Council.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Owing to the most unfortunate death of Dr. A. W. Johns
who died on 31st August, 1954, after a severe illness, I wish
to present his Annual Report for the year 1953, which he had
prepared.
From the facts and figures contained in the ensuing pages
it will be seen that the health of the district maintained its
usual high standard throughout the past year. Our vital
statistics—birth, death, infant mortality rates, etc.—by which
it is possible to assess a healthy environment, compare favourably
with the remainder of the country. A point worthy of
special mention this year is the reduction in the number of
deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis. The total of only 10
deaths from this disease is the lowest ever recorded for the district,
and the death rate at 0.13 per thousand population is well
below that for the whole of the country. Another very gratifying
figure concerns care of premature babies. As will be seen
from a study of the figures given in that section of the report
devoted to infant mortality, out of a total of 12 infant deaths,
prematurity was a contributory cause in only one instance.
Out of the 45 premature babies notified during the year only
one failed to survive one month.
As regards infectious disease, the numbers of notifications
of scarlet fever were about average, whilst those for measles
and whooping cough were quite high. These diseases were,
however, mild in character and there were no deaths recorded.
Once again we were fortunate in having no cases of diphtheria
occurring in the district. There were 15 cases of the modern
scourge—poliomyelitis—notified, and one of the patients
failed to survive the attack: of the others seven had some
degree of residual paralysis. Sixteen cases of paratyphoid
occurred in the district during the year; the attacks were mild
in character and a summary of the outbreaks is given in the
section of this report pertaining to infectious disease.
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