Rushden Infantile Death Rate

Reduced By Fifty Per Cent

At the meeting of the Rushden Urban Council on Wednesday, Dr. H. S. Baker, Medical Officer of Health presented his annual report, from which we take the following extracts:-

No serious outbreak of infections or other disease has marked the year, beyond one of the periodical epidemics of measles that occur every few years.  This began about the last quarter of 1916, and extended into the first week or two of 1917.

The general health of the community has been up to the standard of former years even though a certain percentage of the picked lives have been withdrawn for various national services, and extra work and longer hours have been entailed upon almost all of those of working age.  Neither individual nor the nation generally would appear to have been aware of their latent capacities.  But if affords abundant food for reflection that it would need the cause that has arisen to make us find out that we could all do better than we thought.  I can only hope that the lesson will be a lasting one so that some of the energy, organisation, and money now being used to dissipate and destroy may be directed to the conserving of human life, and improving the health of the race.

That it can be done is proved to demonstration, but it needs thought, organisation, and effort from us all.

Dealing with the possibilities of food restrictions Dr. Baker remarks “I would say to the public: Let not your hearts nor your minds be troubled by compulsory limitations of diet.  You are likely to be healthier in body, sounder in mind, and have a longer lease of life by an enforced but salutary discipline and an absence from many of the things hereto thought necessary. Enough, from a health point of view is better than a feast”.

During the year 279 notifications of infectious disease were received. 175 of these being measles and german measles, notification of which was made compulsory on January 1^st 1916.  Deducting these there were 101 notifications, against 91 in 1915.  Diphtheria was notified as such in 30 cases against 20 in 1915.  Scarlet fever totals 33 cases against 24; crysipelas 6 against 18.  Deaths from these acute infectious diseases number only 5, 2 from measles, 2 from diphtheria, and 1 from whooping cough. 

35 cases of tuberculosis were notified against 27 in 1915.  There were 28 deaths from all kinds of tuberculosis compared with 22 in 1915.

The births notified were 265.  The total birth-rate was 17.32 per thousand of the population, much lower than that of a few decades ago.

The deaths were 137 against 115 in 1915.  The death rate is thus 0.9 per thousand in 1915.

see also reports at Council Meetings