Medical Officer's annual report [to] Durban Corporation.

  • Durban (South Africa). Public Health Department.
Date:
[1948]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical Officer's annual report [to] Durban Corporation. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    characterised by gross materialism, that the coming Age will be more spiritual, that the watchword of the intervening period must be Service, and that while the next decade will give rise to many changes, the youth of the present time need help in matters of body, mind and spirit if world-wide peace rather than chaos is to reign in their time From this standpoint, they look round to see what is being done towards this end, and they see Family Health Services which deal with the body of the child albeit in a totally inadequate manner on account of reasons which have already been noted — but for the mind and spirit of the child what do they see ? Even less. Health Education for parenthood, supplemented by individual instruction at adequately staffed Child Health Clinics can be accepted as a solid foundation for any health scheme. To be effective, however, any such scheme must embrace many other allied activities and must give high priority to programmes of improvement in the human environment. But this is neither the time nor place to suggest ways and means for achieving a com¬ prehensive scheme of health services. Dr. K. McNeill now enters the last year of her long service with the Durban Municipality and, while preparing to pass into oblivion of retirement, she can only repeat the words of Cecil Rhodes when passing to a greater oblivion : “ So much to do, so little done ! ” EUROl 3EAN Cl HNICS NON-EUROPEAN CLINICS Gale Street Mobile Clinics Total Brook Cent Street a res and h nd Gale Street /lobile Clinics 1 GR> TO' kND TAL Coloured Native Asiatic Total 1947-48 1946-47 Total Number of Sessions Total Sessions for Chil- 242 643 885 165 243 555 963 1,848 1,738 dren . 208 643 851 153 243 459 855 1,706 1,595 No. of ante-natal sessions No. of post-natal ses- 22 — 22 12 — 96 108 130 131 sions . Total Attendance at 12 12 12 12 12 Clinics New cases out of above *11,501 29,685 41,186 8,374 24,267 35,126 67,767 108,953 105,305 number . No. of Infants under 1 1,379 1,961 3,340 652 5,084 6,048 11,784 15,124 15,093 year attending clinic Total attendance of In- 779 1,393 2,172 754 2,556 1,627 4,937 7,109 6,467 fants . No. of toddlers and pre¬ school children at- 5,930 13,159 19,089 3,142 10,656 10,329 24,127 43,216 41,124 tending clinic Total attendance of tod¬ dlers and pre-school 597 1,446 2,043 737 751 1,421 2,909 4,952 3,978 children. No. of nursing mothers 2,121 9,907 12,028 3,025 3,363 11,200 17,588 29,616 29,664 attending clinic ... Total attendance of nur- 451 900 1,351 645 2,582 1,623 4,850 6,201 5,271 sing mothers No. of expectant mothers 3,195 6,458 9,653 2,149 10,258 10,565 22,972 32,625 30,692 attending clinic ... Total attendance of ex- 101 — 101 23 — 2,883 2,906 3,007 3,077 pectant mothers ... No. of post-natal cases 157 — 157 34 — 3,232 3,266 3,423 3,688 attending clinic ... Total attendance of post- 87 — 87 — — — — 87 57 natal cases . 98 — 98 — — — — 98 140 No. of test feeds given No. of mothers in¬ structed in treat¬ ment of minor ail- 322 346 668 70 19 58 147 815 1,025 ments . No. of health talks and demonstrations 634 1,893 2,527 655 3,714 8,469 12,838 15,365 13,660 given . 748 3,245 3,993 608 3,353 3,249 7,210 11,203 9,580 * Of this figure 381 were children attended to at Nursery Schools and Homes for Protected Infants. NUMBER OF CASES. -- European Coloured Native Asiatic Referred to Doctors . 61 4 ,, „ Hospital. 33 30 468 607 „ „ Societies. 6 4 1 22 Passed for Day Nursery . 127 — — FOOD DISTRIBUTED. i Gale Street and Mobile Clinics Gale Street and Brook Street Centres and Mobile Clinics Europeans Coloured Native Asiatic Number of cases receiving dried milk free . Amount of dried milk given free in lbs. No. of cases receiving dried milk at cost and reduced prices Amount of dried milk sold at cost and reduced prices in lbs. Number of cases receiving cows’ milk free. Amount of cows' milk given free in pints . 58 1,319 4 48 34 11,153 54 1,590 2 8 12 4,444 54 1,090 3 61 64 1,736 40 1,303