[Report 1929] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow.

  • Glasgow (Scotland)
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1929] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    4/416 (page 4)
    behaviour from year to year is responsible, more than any other single factor, for the fluctuations in the general death rate. In the year under review there occurred a sinister combination of fog with low temperatures associated with an epidemic of influenza, all of which were present together during January. The severity of this com* bmation was the principal agent in raising the death rate to the high figure of 50-3 per thousand of the population during the third week of that month, and in producing a rate of 25-2 for the first quarter of the year and one of 15-3 for the whole year. The available hospital accommodation, stretched to its utmost, was unable to cope with the demand. The voluntary hospitals and those of the Poor-Law Authorities co-operated in every way possible, while the District Nurs* ing Association gave ungrudging service in the home treatment and emergency nursing of patients in collaboration with the health visitor staff. During this period the death rates at the extremes of life were unusually heavy, while patients with bronchitis, heart disease, and tuberculosis were ready victims. In contradistinction to this experience the rates for the remaining quarters of the year were among the lowest figures recorded. It was a fortunate circumstance that the measles epidemic, which began during the third quarter, was one of the mildest ever experienced, characterised by the low mortality of 0-69 per thousand of the population and a comparative absence of its common complication, pneumonia. Some 600 cases were treated in hospital, being about half the number admitted during an average epidemic year. The children affected during this epidemic purchased their immunity cheaply. Prominence is given to respiratory diseases because they are the most prevalent and most fatal of the infections, and because they contribute largely to the child mortality of the City. Studies of the incidence of pneumonia in its various forms reveal no tendency to diminution. These have so far been found intractable, and there are no clearly defined principles of prevention. As regards treatment,, hospital accommodation is being more and more demanded, and in the housing circumstances of the City ready admission is the only feasible course. The pubhc health history of the City has, in fact, become largely the history of its respiratory diseases; they claim the largest share of the available hospital beds to such an extent that administration is often seriously embarrassed. A better adaptation of existing hospital facilities with increased accommodation is one of the important problems of the future. Detailed enquiries into the