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1
Health Services Department,
Walworth Road,
S.E.17.
October, 1944.
To His Worship the Mayor, Aldermen and Councillors
of the Metropolitan Borough of Southwark.
Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The year 1943 passed without any alarming epidemic or
outbreak of disease. The general health of the population was
fairly well maintained in spits of the stress of war although
there was much minor sickness.
The birth rate remained more or less stationary at just
over 18 per 1000 population and was higher than that of England
and Wales and of the County of London area, the respective rates
being 16.5 and 15.8. The infant mortality rate fell to 49 per
1000 births, being the same rats as that for England and Wales but
lower than the London rate of 58. The general death rate of 18.8
per 1000 population was high, higher than the country as a whole
which was 12.1 and also that for London which was 15 per 1000 of
the population. Of the 1,284 deaths registered practically half
were caused by heart diseases and cancer; the deaths of persons
aged over 65 years numbered 702. Whilst the number of births was
slightly less than the deaths-thus no natural increase in the
population-nevertheless the lowered infant mortality rate and the
high mortality rate of persons over 65 years of ago compensate
somewhat in maintaining the youthfulness of the population and
prevents it becoming saturated with aged and non-prcductive persons.
A skeleton maternity and child welfare service was carried
on throughout the year; large numbers of mothers and children
attended the various sessions, and were seen by your two M. & C.W.
doctors Dr. M. Bergin and Dr. A. Mower White and several part-time
medical officers. War conditions made home visiting even more
important than in peace time and your Health Visitors although
somewhat depleted in numbers made very many and. useful visits.
In regard to infectious diseases there was noted a
tendency for certain diseases, mainly scarlet fever and measles, to
show an increase on previous years, but the number of cases of
diphtheria declined considerably and for the first time I am able
to report that there were no deaths from this disease. Although I
am not in a position at the moment to know the total number of
children who have bean protected against diphtheria, there is no
doubt in my mind, that the falling off of the number of cases and
the absence of fatality from this disease, is undoubtedly due to the
drive which has been made during the war period, to encourage
parents to submit their children to preventive treatment. Apart
from children who were treated in the schools, some 847 of whom 803
were under 5 years of age completed a course of preventive injections.
This is good showing as all children should receive this
treatment whilst in the M. & C.W. age period, Could this be so,
there is no doubt that the horrors of diphtheria would vanish.
As to contagious diseases, scabies, I hope, reached its
climax during the year. Never in the history of your disinfecting
station has so much good work been accomplished. Many and varied
were the cases who attended, the age groups varying from babies a
few weeks old to those wall on in their four-score years. Scabies
is a family disease and it has been our rule to treat whole
families, giving preventive treatment to all members of a family in
which a case was known to have occurred whether they showed signs of
scabies or not.