[Report 1947] / Medical Officer of Health, Middlesbrough County Borough.

  • Middlesbrough (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1947
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1947] / Medical Officer of Health, Middlesbrough County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/120 (page 12)
    The maternal mortality rate of 0.55 per 1,000 births is the lowest ever recorded and shows a pleasing reduction from 1.47 per 1,000 births in 1946, and 2.22 per 1,000 births in 1945. It is justifiable to attribute this in no small measure to the improved obstetric facilities recently provided. The infantile mortality rate of 64 per 1,000 live births, shows an increase on the figure of 56 per 1,000 live births in 1946, but is still the second lowest figure ever recorded in Middlesbrough. The increase over 1946 has been largely attributed to deaths from Infantile Gastro-Enteritis occurring in the first year of life, an outbreak of which affected the town during the year and which was evident to some extent throughout the country. Many of these deaths occurred in the poorer areas of the town and were probably contributed to by the hot, dry summer, the prevalence of flies and the general lacking in hygiene in these areas of the town. Apart from these deaths other causes remained at approximately the same figure as for 1946 and once more reflects great credit on the Maternity and Child Welfare and Hospital Services. Nevertheless one must remember that this figure is 50% higher than the comparable figure for England and Wales and much work remains to be done in industrial areas such as this to reduce the infantile mortality rate, which has not yet reached the lowest to which it can be reduced. The illegitimate births have decreased from 282 in 1946 to 227 in 1947. It is hoped that the figure for 1946, which was the maximum reached since the onset of the war, will prove to have been the peak figure and that soon we may see a continued reduction. A pre-war figure was 125. 1,204 new cases were treated at the Venereal Diseases Clinic during the year as compared with 1,444 in 1946. Here again, as in the illegitimate births, a reduction has been seen for the first time since the onset of the war and it is hoped that we may be seeing a decreased incidence of this disease. Improved facilities for treatment, extra effort in bringing contacts and others for treatment will probably tend to bring a bigger percentage of actual cases to the Clinic and it may well be that there is a greater diminution in incidence than is represented by these figures. An increased number of infectious diseases was notified, 5,020 cases being the figure for 1947 as against 3,697 in 1946. The outbreak of Measles experienced during the last three months of 1946 was continued well into 1947 and partly accounts for this increase, the remainder resulting from increased incidence of Scarlet Fever which was of a mild nature and Whooping