Progress report of the Medical Officer of Health to 30th September, 1925 / Urban Sanitary District of the City of Port-of-Spain.

  • Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago). Public Health Department.
Date:
1925
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Progress report of the Medical Officer of Health to 30th September, 1925 / Urban Sanitary District of the City of Port-of-Spain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    43. The following table shows the proportion of the total infant mortality allocated to each group of causes. Table III. (1) Prenatal influences—Congenital syphilis, &c. .. 55*5 per cent. (2) Environmental influences—Stomach and bowel troubles .. 24*5 do. Lung diseases .. ..7-0 do. Accidents and lack of care .. 7’5 do. Malaria, &c. .. .. 5’5 do. Total .. .. .. 100-0 44. Similar results were obtained from an analysis of the City’s infant mortality statistics for the preceding period of five years—1920-1924, the figures for the several years also showing that while the proportion of deaths from stomach and bowel troubles, especially in the first six months of life, is steadily decreasing, largely, no doubt, in consequence of the praiseworthy efforts of the Child Welfare League, the reverse is taking place in regard to the mortality from congenital syphilis and other prenatal causes. 45. Contrary, therefore, to the popular notion that diarrhoeal diseases, mostly caused by unsuitable food, are chiefly responsible for the high infant mortality rate which is such a deplorable feature of the health conditions of the City, it is found on examining the death returns that more than half the number of infants who perish under one year are foredoomed weaklings, born with disease or diminished resistance to disease, the offspring of parents—especially mothers— suffering from ill-health due, it may be, to privation and want in some cases, but, principally, to syphilis and other preventable diseases. 46. This circumstance calls for greater effort in developing and extending the ante-natal side of the Maternity and Child Welfare work which has already proved so successful in reducing the infant mortality from maternal ignorance and improper feeding, and the best manner in which such efforts may be assisted is a question deserving the sympathetic consideration of the Lccal Authority. 47. Diarrhoea and Enteritis.—Deaths from diarrhoea and enteritis numbered 50, compared with 75 for the corresponding period last year, a decline of 33 per cent, which is consistent with the improvement in maternal care and the feeding of infants already referred to. SANITARY CONDITIONS. 48. Rainfall.—This year has so far been wetter than the last. From records kindly supplied by the Agricultural Department, based on the average of measurements taken at St. Clair Experiment Station, the Colonial Hospital and Constabulary Headquarters, 31.5 inches of rain fell in the City, an increase of 4.5 inches on the corresponding nine months in 1924. 49. The wettest months were July, August and September, with 5-7, 9-4 and 6*6 inches of rainfall, respectively, and the driest February, April and May, with 0’5, 0‘06 and O'59 inches, respectively. 50. During the first three quarters of last year the wettest months were also July, August and September, with a little over one and a half inches of rainfall less than the total for the corresponding months this year ; the driest months were February, with 0’06 inches of rainfall, and March and April, with 0’67 and 1T5 inches, respectively. 51. The monthly average rainfall for the period under review was 3'5 inches, compared with 3 inches in 1924. 52. Water Examination.—By a friendly arrangement with the Medical Department bacteriological reports on the mixed water supply from Maraval, Cocorite and, occasionally, Diego Martin were furnished to the Medical Officer of Health by the Government Bacteriologist on every week day from March 13th onwards. In 201 days, up to the 30th September, 188 reports were supplied showing the absence of B. coli—one of the principal indicators of excremental pollution—-on 176 occasions, or in 93.5 per cent, of the tests, and the presence of them on 12 occasions, or in 6-5 per cent, of the samples examined.