[Report 1907] / Medical Officer of Health, King's Norton & Northfield U.D.C.

King's Norton and Northfield (England). Urban District Council.

Date:: 1907

Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1907] / Medical Officer of Health, King's Norton & Northfield U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Chicken Pox. Chicken pox was present in some of the schools during many months, but no school had to be closed because of its prevalence. This complaint, like mumps, is, as a rule, so extremely mild, that there is often the greatest difficulty in diagnosing it, and there is little doubt that numbers of cases of both diseases are never discovered at all and continue attending school all through the course of the disease. This applies to all infectious complaints to a degree, but is naturally more marked in the milder varieties. Cancer. There were 59 deaths from cancer and other forms of malignant disease. This compares unfavourably with 1906, when only 41 deaths were certified. This increase is probably more apparent than real, and it is accounted for to an extent by more unfavourable climatic conditions. These conditions naturally press hardest on sufferers from chronic diseases, who usually die from some inter-current ailment. There were 24 male deaths and 35 deaths of females, a fairly usual proportion. All the victims were over thirty-five years of age, with one exception, a child under five years. There were 16 deaths in King's Heath, 15 in Selly Oak, and 13 in Moseley. Influenza. Twelve deaths were due to influenza, 3 males and 9 females. Two of these were children, 5 adults of middle age, and 5 of old people. Heaths were certified in all the Wards except King’s Norton, 3 deaths each occurring in three Wards. This disease, with its disastrous sequelse, still is prevalent, but of recent years it has become a popular form of diagnosis. Heart Diseases. There were certified 61 deaths from diseases of the heart and blood vessels, 11 less than in 1906. The male deaths were 12 less than the female ones. . Two deaths were at ages under 25 years, the remainder being over that age. Although the majority of these deaths were, originally due to more or less severe attacks of rheumatism, this disease itself only caused three deaths directly.