[Report 1955] / Medical Officer of Health, Surrey County Council.

  • Surrey (England). County Council.
Date:
1955
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1955] / Medical Officer of Health, Surrey County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    13 Once again there has been an increase in actual number of deaths and in the death rate for cancer of all forms. This increase relates particularly to cancer of the lung and bronchus, the steady increase of which is one of the most disquieting phenomena in the death returns of the present time. The following table gives the number of deaths due to this cause in England and Wales, in the Greater London Conurbation and in Surrey in the past five years, with the corresponding death rates. (The Greater London Conurbation as defined by the Registrar-General includes the whole of the Counties of London and Middlesex, the Comity Borough of Croydon, parts of Kent, Essex and Hertfordshire, and that part of Surrey within the Metropolitan Police District.) Surrey. Greater London. England and Wales. Males. Females. Totals. Males. Females. Totals. Males. Females. Totals. 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 363 (0.58)* 414 (0.65)* 440 (0.69)* 509 (0.79)* 556 (0.86)* 75 (0.10)* 82 (0.11)* 68 (0.09)* 83 (0.11)* 94 (0.13)* 438 (0.32) 496 (0.36) 508 (0.37) 592 (0.43) 650 (0.47) 2,746 (0.70) 2,902 (0.74) 3,113 (0.80) 3,356 (0.86) t 528 (0.12) 595 (0.13) 577 (0.13) 678 (0.15) t 3,274 (0.39) 3,497 (0.42) 3,690 (0.44) 4,034 (0.48) 4,196 (0.51) 11,166 (0.53) 11,981 (0.57) 12,881 (0.61) 13,995 (0.66) 14,820 (0.69) 2,081 (0.09) 2,237 (0.10) 2,251 (0.10) 2,336 (0.10) 2,451 (0.11) 13,247 (0.30) 14,218 (0.32) 15,132 (0.34) 16,331 (0.37) 17,271 (0.39) The figures in parentheses represent the corresponding death rates per 1000 home population. * Based on the proportion of males to females at the 1951 Census. t Not yet available. It will be seen that— (1) The death rates of the two sexes are very different, the number of deaths from this cause in males being now more than six times greater than in females. (2) The rate of increase is greater in males than females. (3) The incidence of cancer of the lung and bronchus is greater in Surrey than in the country as a whole and the increase in the incidence is also greater (increase of 1955 figures over 1951 :— Surrey, males, 48 per cent., females, 30 per cent. ; England and Wales, males, 30 per cent., females, 22 per cent.). (4) While the death rate for the Administrative County of Surrey is lower both for males and females than in the Greater London Conurbation, the rate of increase in males in Surrey is considerably greater than in Greater London. The ages at which the deaths from this cause occurred in Surrey are classified in the table on page 11. It is noteworthy that the actual number of cases in the Rural Districts in the five year period was only 79 per cent, of the number which would have occurred if the incidence had been the same as in the Urban Districts during this period. Moreover, the rate in the ex-Metropolitan part of the County is generally lower than in the Metropolitan part. 7. Infectious Diseases : Notifications and Deaths. The following table shows the incidence of infectious disease in the County during the year 1955, giving the number of cases of each disease notified and the attack rate :— 1955 Disease. Number of cases notified. Attack-rate per 1,000 population. Acute encephalitis— Infective 4 0.003 Post infectious — — Acute pneumonia 744 0.53 Acute poliomyelitis—- Paralytic 187 0.13 Non-Paralytic 1(50 0.12 Diphtheria — — Dysentery 836 0.60 Enteric or Typhoid Fever 4 0.003 Erysipelas 113 0.08 Food poisoning 285 0.20 Measles, excluding Rubella ... 19,398 13.93 Meningococcal Infection 14 0.01 *Ophthalmia neonatorum 2 0.11 Paratyphoid fevers 18 0.01 fPuerperal Pyrexia 523 28.06 Scarlet Fever ... 904 0.65 Tuberculosis—Pulmonary 759 0.54 Non-pulmonary 96 0.07 Whooping cough 2,024 1.45 * Rate per 1,000 live births. f Rate per 1,000 live and still births. During the year deaths occurred from the following infectious diseases as shown :— Measles ... ... ... ... ... 3 (1) Whooping Cough ... ... ... ... — (1) Diphtheria ... ... ... ... ... — (—■) Influenza ... ... ... ... ... 102 (31) Meningococcal infections ... ... ... 2 (5) Acute Poliomyelitis ... ... ... 9 (2) The figures in brackets relate to the year 1954.