[Report 1917] / Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich County Borough.

  • West Bromwich (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1917] / Medical Officer of Health, West Bromwich County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    were due to burning fatalities among young children, 313 deaths were ascribed to other defined diseases, as compared with 275 in 1916. ZYMOTIC DISEASES. The Measles Mortality is mainly responsible for the increase which has occurred in the Zymotic Death-rate, which for 1917 was 1.9, as compared with 0.6 in the pre¬ vious year. 0|f the 127 deaths from the principal Zymotic diseases, 75, as already stated, were due to Measles, as compared with 1 in 1916 ; 30 to Diarrhoea, as compared with 14 in 1916; 11 to Whooping Cough, 4 to Diphtheria or Membranous Croup, and 1 to Scarlet Fever. The num¬ ber of deaths due to Zymotic Diseases during the preceding five years were 83, 276, 137, 202,, and 39 respectively. CHILD MORTALITY. As was also foreshadowed in the report for 1916, the infantile mortality figures for 1917 are by no means so satisfactory as they were in the preceding year. The net number of deaths of infants under one year was 210, as compared with 171 in 1916, the infantile mortality being 121.5 as compared with 89.8 in 1916. The rates for the four quarters were 141.3, 134.5, 95.2, 113.2. Although compared with the figure for 1916, this in¬ crease appears to be very marked, yet, when compared with the figure (118) for the quinquennial period 1912—1916, it is by no means so unsatisfactory, particularly having regard to the difficulties encountered, and, indeed, com¬ pares favourably with rates once prevalent in the borough. Of the 208 deaths, 74, or 35.6 per cent., took place before the end of the first month, 100 were premature, weakly and deformed infants, bronchitis and pneumonia were responsible for 41 deaths, diarrhoea! disorders 25. measles 15, tubercular disorder's 6. 'convulsions 6, and whooping cough and syphilis 2 each. Detailed investigations were made by the Health Yisitorsi into 168 of these deaths, and they report that in no fewer than 89 cases the infants were weakly at birth, 35 being prematurely born (two under 7 months); mothers'