Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health / City Council of Pretoria.

  • Pretoria (South Africa). Health Department.
Date:
[1929]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health / City Council of Pretoria. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    59/64 (page 55)
    The following are the average annual rates for the periods specified. Total Average Death-rate Period. Deaths. Annual Deaths. under 5 years (European). 1907—1909 (3 years) .... 10 3.3 1.18 per 1,000 1909—1914 . .... 16 3.2 0.99 1914—1919 . ... 17 3.4 0.95 1919—1924 . ... 14 2.8 0.76 1924—1929 . .... 10 2.0 0.5 As in the case of Measles there has only been a slight fall in the attack rate which averaged 18.3 in the period 1909—19H, and 17.2 in the period 1924—1929. The fall in the death-rate in both these diseases may be partly due to improved sani¬ tary conditions, but is also I believe the result of earlier and more careful treatment of cases consequent on the publicity and attention given by the Health Authority to what used to be regarded as trivial complaints by the public and not worthy of serious attention. Tuberculosis : The death-rate for Europeans has fallen from 0.53 per 1,000 in 1904— 1911 to 0.287 per 1,000 in 1920—1929, and for Coloured persons from 1.62 per 1,000 in 1904—1911 to 1.05 per 1,000 in 1920—-1929; a reduction of about fifty per cent. Sanitary Conditions : Citizens of Pretoria to-day will hardly recognise their city as described in the local newspapers of the eighties and nineties of last century when there were dirty water-sluits and accumulations of rubbish on every hand; when our streets were used for depositing kitchen refuse, slops, empty tins and broken glass”; when car¬ casses, rubbish and filth are deposited on the outskirts of the town; when the water supply is putrid, wells are in close proximity to cesspools, and cesspools are overflowing into fur¬ rows; when Church Square is used as a cattle kraal and soil, chiefly animal excreta, has risen to a depth of two feet; when nameless abominations are to be met with in the streets and disease is rife in every quarter of the town. But these conditions are vouched for also by Government reports of the day and they underwent very little improvement until 1902 when the Town Council was established and properly qualified Health and Engineering officials were appointed. This was two years before the period which I am reviewing, and during these two years very great improvements had been effected. During the following quarter of a century a great deal of work has been carried out in the improvement of Sanitary Conditions, in respect to Housing, and with regard to the purity of Milk and other Foodstuffs offered for sale. In 1904 there was no Isolation Hospital, other than a few old wood and iron build¬ ings belonging to the Transvaal Government. The present Hospital (thirty beds) was erected in 1911 and about 1,500 cases have been treated therein. Water-carriage Drainage : In 1904, except for two small installations at Bryntirion and the Artillery Barracks, the Conservancy System prevailed throughout the town, and household waste water was disposed of in the most primitive manner by being discharged into open furrows on the streets. The system was attended by constant offence and frequent nuisance. To-day the whole central area, the greater portion of the Eastern suburbs as well as part of the West are provided with water-carriage drainage. The Sewage Disposal Works were opened in 1913, and have been a complete success, and a model for other places in South Africa. An enormous improvement has been effected in the town by the provision of a com¬ plete system of Storm Water Drainage, and the proper construction of roads, many of which are now tar-macadamised, and there is an excellent scavenging system under which the streets of Pretoria are maintained at a high pitch of cleanliness. Housing : Great improvements have been effected in the housing conditions both of the poorer class of Europeans and in the case of Coloured persons. Some 1,900 rooms occupied by Europeans and 1,500 occupied by Coloured persons and which were unfit for human habitation have been closed by Magistrate's Order. The Council has erected 38 houses for European occupation besides assisting large numbers of people with building loans. As regards Coloured persons, about 300 Municipal houses have been erected in Bantule Location; Marabastad has been greatly improved, and twenty houses have been