[Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, Slough Borough.

  • Slough Borough Council
Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1946] / Medical Officer of Health, Slough Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/38 page 1
    BOROUGH OF SLOUGH. ANNUAL REPORT of the MEDICAL OFFICER of HEALTH for the year 1946. To the Mayor, Chairman and Members of the Public Health Committee. Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to present my first annual report upon the Health Services carried out by the Council. This report is the fiftieth of the series of such reports. The vital statistics show that the general health of the area has been satisfactorily maintained. Live births totalled 1,318, which is the highest figure recorded for the Borough, with a rate of 20.9 compared with the national rate of 19.1 The rate as well as the national rate shows an increase on the 1945 figures, and in addition is the highest since 1920 when it was recorded at 24. The infantile mortality rate is 31.1 and is 11.9 below the national rate. This figure shows a decrease on last year’s rate, which was recorded as a new low record—hence a new record is again established. The maternal mortality rate of 0.74 compares favourably with the national rate of 1.43, while both figures are an improvement on last year’s. The death rate of 8.3 is well below the national rate of 11.5, and is a decline of 0.1 on last year’s figure. Heart disease, cancer and intracranial vascular lesions respectively are again noted to be the three commonest causes of death. The death rate from Tuberculosis was 0.6 per 1,000. This is a slight increase on the previous year, but when compared with the following figures for the past ten years it will be seen that it is well within normal limits. Figures for the past ten years 0.53 0.59 0.52 0.45 0.64 0.5 0.5 0.4 0.6 0.5 A total of 16 cases of Diphtheria were notified, of which 11 were children and 5 adults. All of these cases were admitted to hospital and none were fatal. An unusual finding was that out of these 16 cases 10 had been immunised and 6 not immunised. There was no evidence, however, that any of these 10 cases had been re-immunised since infancy, and as 9 out of the 10 cases were school children this emphasises the necessity of re-immunisation at the time a child enters school. Scarlet Fever again showed a marked decrease, only 77 cases being notified as compared with 113 the previous year The disease was of a mild type and showed very few complications.
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