[Report 1941-1945] / Medical Officer of Health, Dundee City.

  • Dundee (Scotland). City Council.
Date:
1945
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1941-1945] / Medical Officer of Health, Dundee City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    remained good. Taking everything into consideration, one cannot but feel that things might have been very much worse. At the beginning of the war many of us thought that it would be very difficult to maintain any reasonable standards especially in regard to nutrition and infectious disease. While housing, cleanliness, paternal care, etc., suffered it must not be thought that progress was not made. Actually the war years were definitely years of progress. This introductory note draws attention to certain of the more outstanding matters. Fuller information is contained in the reports by the various medical officers which form separate sections of this volume. Infant Deaths, Neo-Natal Deaths, Stillbirths, Maternal Deaths, Maternity and Infant Welfare Services, School Medical Services. The publication of the report of a Sub-Committee of the Scien- tific Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality in Scotland stimulated interest in the efforts which require to be made to reduce infant mortality and morbidity. Infant Mortality and the Maternity and Infant Welfare Scheme were the subjects of several special reports submitted to the Public Health Committee from time to time during the war years. The death-rates among infants are steadily falling in Dundee, and there is evidence in the figures that the war had no serious adverse effect except that there was an unusually high death-rate among infants in 1941. The average death-rate for the five-yearly period 1941-45 was 68 per 1,000 births, the lowest yet for any five- yearly period. Considering that the rate averaged 164 for the 1911-16 quinquennium, it must be admitted that progress has been made. In 1945 the rate was 57, the lowest ever for Dundee, and it looks as if that rate would be maintained or even improved during the present year. It is well-known that the dangerous period of infancy is that immediately following birth. About half, and in 1945 more than half, of the under one-year-old deaths occurred at ages under one month, and about one-third during the first week after birth. Out- standing among the causes are prematurity and infection alone or together. On examining the certified causes of infant deaths as they occur from week to week, one cannot help being impressed with the fact that if these two conditions could be controlled infant mor- tality would be reduced to a very low figure. The real causes of