The medical report for the State of Selangor.

  • Selangor.
Date:
[1905]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The medical report for the State of Selangor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/26 (page 2)
    BERI-BERI. Two thousand two hundred and fifteen cases of this disease were treated with 330 deaths, as against 2,083 with 326 deaths during the previous year. The number of cases of this disease treated in Selangor, with deaths and death-rate, during the last five years was as follows: Year. Cases treated. Deaths. Case mortality. 1901 . 2,065 311 15.06 1902 . 2,673 325 12.15 1903 . 1,912 351 18.35 1904 . 2,083 326 15.65 1905 . 2,215 330 14.89 It will be seen that the number of cases treated and the number of deaths caused by this disease has not varied to any extent during the last five years, although the figures compare very favourably with those for 1895, 1896 and 1897, which were as follows: Year. Cases treated. Deaths. Case mortality. 1895 . 3,781 711 18.8 1896 . 5,518 990 17.9 1897 . 4,884 1,066 21.8 It is of interest to note that during the five years 1896-1900 there were 3,023 deaths from beri-beri in the Selangor hospitals, whereas during the years 1901-1905 only 1,643 deaths in hospitals were due to this disease. This is satisfactory in view of the large increase in the Chinese population during the last 10 years. There has been no special outbreak of the disease in the State with the exception of the Lunatic Asylum, among the inmates of which a large number of cases occurred with a heavy death-rate. This will be especially referred to in connection with the report on the asylum Ninety-seven cases of beri-beri occurred in the Pudoh Gaol with two deaths. This will be referred to iu the report on the gaol. MALARIAL FEVERS. Two thousand one hundred and nine cases of this disease were treated in the various hospitals with 173 deaths as against 2,008 with 114 deaths in 1904. The increase in case mortality from 5.67 per cent, to 8.20 per cent, is rather large, but I can give no probable reason to account for it. The anti-malarial measures carried out at Port Swettenham and Klang have resulted in the inhabitants of those stations enjoying an almost complete immunity from malaria. This will be referred to in detail in Dr. Watson’s report on the Coast Districts. BOWEL COMPLAINTS. There has been an increase in the number of cases admitted to the hospitals with bowel complaints. This is shown by the following figures : Year. Cases treated. Deaths. 1901 . 3,826 1,143 1902 . 2,488 848 1903 . 1,712 588 1904 . 1,140 328 1905 . 1,550 471 This increase has occurred mainly under the heading of dysentery, 958 cases of which disease with 303 deaths have been under treatment as compared to 599 with 183 deaths during the previous year. PULMONARY DISEASE. One thousand and seventy-eight cases of disease of the pulmonary system came under treatment with 284 deaths, a slight improvement on the results for the previous year when there were 305 fatal cases out of a total of 1,014 treated. VENEREAL DISEASE. Statistics of this disease during the last four years are Year. as follows: Cases. Deaths. 1902 . 844 7 1903 . 847 16 1904 . 751 12 1905 . 660 10 It is probable that some cases of venereal disease have been registered under diseases of the glandular system. The decrease in the number of cases coming under treatment and the small mortality is encouraging, considering the large increase in the population of the towns.