[Report 1950] / Medical Officer of Health, Essex County Council.

  • Essex (England). County Council.
Date:
1950
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1950] / Medical Officer of Health, Essex County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    8/106 (page 8)
    PREFACE County Hall, Chelmsford. July, 1951. ,) To the Chairman and Members of the Health Committee. Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to present my Annual Report on the health services of thi Administrative County for the year 1950. The report is again divided into a serie r of main sections, each dealing in detail with a particular part of the health serviccn and including all its related activities. It is my purpose to comment briefly in thi ] preface on certain matters of particular interest and to call attention to new activities and developments. Vital Statistics The death rate for the Administrative County was 10.0 per 1,000 compared witty 10.4 per 1,000 in 1949. The birth rate of 14.7 again showed a marked decline on tha of previous years and is now only a little above the pre-war average figure of 14.5 pe 1,000. The tables in the report show the variability of the birth rates in differen j parts of the County. A pleasing feature of the statistics is the continued reduction in the infan: ii mortality rate to a figure of 23.4 per 1,000 live births, but the neo-natal death rate i i.e. in the first four weeks of life, shows a tendency to increase after the sharp dro | in the two post-war years. The connection between prematurity and death in th first few hours, days or weeks of life is dealt with on pages 20 to 22 and froi i the figures available as to the deaths of infants in the first 28 days of life it will b l seen that the neo-natal death rate of premature infants was 163 per 1,000 as compare | with only 9.3 per 1,000 in the case of mature infants. These figures point to the nee for measures designed to afford special care for the premature infant and for a i: intensification of ante-natal supervision and treatment directed to the prevention c prematurity. The measures in force in the County to deal with this problem ai : outlined on page 48. The mortality statistics in relation to infectious and parasitic diseases show remarkable improvement over those of pre-war years. For the first time no deat : from diphtheria occurred in the County. On page 24 is a comparison of the numbed of deaths from infectious diseases in 1950 and 1938 which shows that in 1938 tli I number of deaths under 15 years from diphtheria was 60 ; from measles 42 as compare \ with four in 1950 ; from whooping cough 24 as compared with five in 1950 ; an i from tuberculosis 69 in 1938 and 15 in 1950. An important feature of the mortality tables is the high death rate from accident among youths and young men between 15 years and 25 years. There were 51 fate , accidents among males of this age accounting for 40 per cent, of the total deaths i the age group, and 35 of these involved motor vehicles. The comparable numbei i