[Report 1941] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow.

  • Glasgow (Scotland)
Date:
1941
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: [Report 1941] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the first nine months, some 2,500 cases with 63 deaths have occurred, so that the force of the wave is not yet spent. The position is still serious, and the need for pressing immunisation is still great. In Glasgow, so far, 103,000 school children and 23,000 pre-school children have been immunised, equivalent to 60 per cent, of the former and 40 per cent, of the latter group. Propaganda is proceeding in the ways described in the Report in order to increase these percentages and to maintain immunisation as a permanent measure of protection for as many children as possible at special clinics, at welfare centres, and in the schools. The influence and interest of headmasters and teachers have been forthcoming, and are of outstanding value in this protective policy. A beginning has been made with immunisation against whooping-cough on a small experimental scale, an offer which has a special appeal to mothers of young children. The health of children as a whole has prevailed against increasing overcrowding and the influence of the black-out, with its adverse effect on the ventilation of small houses. The milk priority scheme, in which 90 per cent, of children partake, food rationing, and the issue of vitamins and “ protective ” foods have more than offset these disadvantages of environment, as is attested by the child welfare medical staff and by the health visitors. Observations on the physical condition of school children are reassuring. In the last school medical report for the year ending in July, 1941, the group of school entrants at five years of age showed definite increases in average height and weight. Dr. Miller Young says that apart from minor ailments, the- school children, especially the infants, are in better physical condition than in previous years.” The minor ailments referred to are mostly skin affections, principally scabies, which is still occurring at the rate of about 300 to 400 cases per week. While these are important generalisations, it should be pointed out that infant life has suffered from two successive severe winters and from a more than usually large and severe outbreak of whooping-cough. For these and other reasons the infant mortality rates for 1940 and for 1941 were respectively 95 and 111 per thousand births. This latter rate was highest in the first quarter of the year, when respiratory diseases and whooping-cough were at their worst. Again, deaths due to premature birth and immaturity have tended to increase since the war began. These causes of death were noticeable during the air raids of 1941, but