Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health [to] the Corporation of the City of Capetown.

  • Cape Town (South Africa). City Health Department.
Date:
[1927]
    The Corporation OF l9»j!r t»/Jr #’ w*^ ;n I 24JUL 1B2£5 rnr ■>, M .... .fligJSar The City of Capetown ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Medical Officer of Health, T. SHADICK HIGGINS, M.D., B.S., B.Sc., Lond.; M.R.C.S , Eng., L.R C.P., Lond.; D.P.H., Cantab.; Fellow of the Royal Sanitary Institute. For the year ended 30th June, 1927. CAPE TIMES LIMITED
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    THE CORPORATION OF THE CITY OF CAPETOWN. Report of the Medical Officer of Health FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30th JUNE, 1927. To His Worship the Mayor and Councillors of the City oe Capetown. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to present the annual report on the health and sanitary conditions of the City of Capetown for the year 1926-27 together with an account of the wrork of the Health Department during the year. Vital Statistics. The birth rate for Europeans has continued to decline and in 1926-27 was again the lowest recorded in the City. Amongst non-Europeans the birth rate remains at a high level and does not showT the same tendency to decline. The death rate and the infant mortality rate were both somewhat higher than in the previous year, when for Europeans they were the lowest recorded for the City. These rates for non-Europeans were also somewhat higher than last year. The chief factor in this increase was mortality from respiratory diseases. This was associated with the unusually cold winter with which the year began. Although the death rate for non-Europeans was 2.7 times as great as that for Europeans the natural increase in the population (i.e. the excess of births over deaths) was much greater in the case of non-Europeans than of Europeans. Infectious Diseases. Enteric fever and diphtheria were both somewhat more prevalent than in the previous year. In the former disease this was due mainly to unfavourable climatic conditions, and in the latter to milk-borne infection. There was also an increase in epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis, which was continued with greater severity after the close of the year. The mortality from measles and whooping cough was about that of an average year. Tuberculosis. The death rate from this disease, both for Europeans and non-Europeans, was greater than in the previous year. During the past ten j^ears there has been no decrease, and redoubled efforts to deal with the situation are called for. The deaths from tuberculosis during the year numbered 97 Europeans and 449 non-Europeans, and one death in every seven was caused by this disease. It is fostered by conditions of poverty and overcrowding, and is largely determined by social conditions. Preparations were made during the year under review to increase the number of beds available for the isolation and treatment of tubercu¬ lous cases, and there is much need for an improved service of tuberculosis clinics. Venereal Diseases. , The prevalence of these diseases remains high, and further extensions of the municipal treatment centres are needed. Plague. The position in regard to plague in the country continues to become more menacino-. The infection in the veld rodents has since the close of the year under review reached within 80 miles of Capetown and a very short distance of the Cape