[Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Sedgefield (Union) R.D.C.

  • Sedgefield (England). Rural District Council.
Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1893] / Medical Officer of Health, Sedgefield (Union) R.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE SEDGEFIELD UNION RURAL SANITARY AUTHORITY. Srf^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ N ^ Sk • Gentlemen, I have the honour to submit for your consideration my Annual Report for the year ended December 3Ist, which I have endeavoured to state as concisely as possible. The Mortality from all causes during the year amounts to 534 of whom 160 were inmates of the Durham County Lunatic Asylum, reducing the mortality belonging to the Sanitary District to 374, upon which the death rate is estimated. Of this number 189 were males and 185 were females. TliG Nuinber of Births during the same period amounts to 717 of whom 375 were males and 342 were females. The Population of the Sanitary District which at the last Census (1891), amounted to 18,222 exclusive of the inmates of the County Asylum, I now estimate at 18,640 upon which the Vital Statistics are calculated. The Rate of Mortality in the Sedgefield and Bishopton Divisions (Agricultural) is 15'0 per thousand, and that of the Ferryhill, Cornforth and Trimdon Divisions, where the industrial pursuits are chiefly limestone and coal mining, it amounts to 21 3 per thousand. The Birth Rate amounts to 38’3 per thousand, which is slightly below the average. The Infant Mortality is considerably in excess of that of former years, 136 having succumbed within the first year, being at the rate of 189 per thousand births. This great mortality is attributed to impaired vitality from premature birth. Atelectasis from prolonged and difficult labour. Convulsions during the period of dentition. Marasmus from inherited and constitutional disease, Gastro-enteritis and diarrhoea from dietetic errors and other maladies incidental to infantile life. Longevity—it is satisfactory to note is fully up to the average, 45 having attained the allotted period or 2*3 per thousand, of whom 34 were septuagenarians, 8 octogenarians, and 1 nonagenarian. 'T'he Zymotic Class of Diseases is accountable as a cause of death in 64 cases, which is above the average, the death rate being 3‘4 per thousand. The Infectious Diseases (Notification) Act, 1889, adopted by the Board only came into operation on the 1st May, furnishes us with a means of ascertaining the extent to which infectious disease prevails in the District. During the eight months that the Act has been in operation 233 notifications were received, 55 of these being Scarlatina, 11 Diphtheria, 94 Typhoid Fever, 53 Continued Fever, 4 Puerperal Pever, and 17 Erysipelas. About 200 of the cases were visited, in many cases repeated visits were paid, instructions given, both printed and verbal, disinfectants supplied, and the attention of your Inspector of Nuisances directed to such insanitary conditions that were calculated to endanger an extension of disease. Small Pox.—An outbreak of the disease occurred at Fishburn. The first case came under my observation on the 21st February’, the sufferer being the daughter of an Innkeeper and the case of the confluent type. On the 27th inst. the wife of an Aylum Attendant was attacked, the case being of an exceedingly mild character. The origin of the outbreak was at this time involved in obscurity but it subsequently transpired that her husband had a short time previously suffered from a Febrile attack which, for three days, rendered him unable to perform his duties, when a slight eruption appeared which passed through the gradation of cyclical changes, as in his wife’s case, and that his daughter also suffered from a similar attack, the nature of which was not suspected nor were the cases deemed to be of sufficient importance to need the services of a medical man. \