[Report 1965] / Medical Officer of Health, Pudsey Borough.

  • Pudsey (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1965
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1965] / Medical Officer of Health, Pudsey Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Divisional Health Office The Green Horsforth To the Chairman and Members of the Health Committee Mr Chairman, Madam and Gentlemen, I beg to present my report on the Health and Sanitary Conditions of the Borough during 1965. The population of the Borough rose by 340 to 37,290 accord¬ ing to the Registrar General’s estimate, and 270 of this increase was accounted for by the difference in numbers between births and deaths. Once again the birth rate has fallen, and when adjusted for comparative purposes is again helow the national rate. A rising death rate whio^ is above the rate for England and Wales has also been noted for the second year running. The incidence of notifiable infectious diseases shows some improvement on last year, and leads one to comment on the changing work of the Health Department. Up to the nineteen thirties tne mai preoccupation of the department was the prevention and treatment of infectious disease, and our interest in housing, water supplies sewerage was mainly orientated to prevent such disease. and badly ventilated houses helped the spread of airborne infections, while dampness lowered the resistance to all diseases, while poor s * tation and water supplies encouraged the spread of bowel Nowadays the improved general standards of health and physical_fitness and better social conditions have contributed to a greater res^^n]ore infection, and few houses have not main water and drainag • for those who do get infections the improvements in medical treatmen- with chemotherapy and antibiotics, and indeed the wider medical care, have reduced the death rate from these old killing diseases to negligible proportions. Our interest in housing nowadays is no s much to prevent the spread of disease as to get people out of dwellin& which are lacking in amenities which we now regard as necessary everyone, and into new ones which reach the accepted standards of to- ay. On the health side we now have prophylactic vaccines to help vs todP“re the individual from infection, and our interest is turning ^nd more to those diseases which kill in middle life - coronary heartJh^ns and cancer. Our objective must be to find what causes these conditions and prevent them as we have dealt with the infections. Environment s il has a great part to play - now as well as clean water, and clean food we have to realise the part that clean air plays in the disease - both in the air we all breathe, and that we breathe as mdivxa uals - in other words prevention of pollution of the air at large wi smoke from fires, and a'lso personallythe effects of cigarette smoking. - 3 -
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