Report of the Medical Officer of Health / Municipality of Colombo.

  • Colombo (Sri Lanka). Public Health Department.
Date:
[1923]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health / Municipality of Colombo. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/82 (page 13)
    (11) Infant Feeding. Visits at which Instructions Visits to Year. re Infant Feeding Hand-fed Remarks. given. Children. 1910 • • • 590 • • • (No record) 1911 1,784 • • • (No record) 1912 1,858 dOQl 1913 2,601 • • • 07-j Slave Island Dispensary only. 1914 1,661 • • • 619\ 1915 111 365 L, 1916 3,283 865 lSlaJe Island and St. Paul’s 1917 3,507 • • • 7 775 Dispensaries. 1918 3,150 • • • 589' 1919 4,552 2 630! ™ 1920 6,786 1 Q9oiSlave Island, St. Paul’s, and 1921 12,447 • • • • • • 2'97lJ Maradana Dispensaries. 1922 11,350 • • • 2,4081 Slave Island, St. Paul’s, Mara- 1923 13,856 • • • 2,740 j dana, and Modera Dispensaries. (12) Work of Municipal Midwives, 1906 to 1923. Von » Total Births in No. of Confinements No. of Children x 6<ll. Colombo. attended. •Born. 1906 4,726 • • • 396 405 1907 4,280 • • • 476 479 1908 4,609 • • • 543 546 1909 4,589 • • • 567 571 1910 4,819 631 646 1911 5,280 • • • 615 623 1912 • 5,195 • • • 677 690 1913 5,693 • • • 661 668 1914 5,359 686 703 1915 5,641 638 653 1916 5,552 • • • 666 674 1917 5,860 662 671 1918 5,920 • • • 651 656 1919 5,907 560 562 1920 7,197 • • • 772 779 1921 8,724 • • • 743 749 1922 6,881 • • • 581 587 1923 7,107 • • • 565 572 (13) Work done by Municipal Midwives, 192S. Number of confinements attended Number of children born Number of stillbirths Number of deaths Death-rate exclusive of stillbirths 565 572 40 13 2*3 per cent. XVIII-Anti-Mosquito Work. Weather conditions last year were most favourable for the breeding of mosquitoes, and consequently, a very large number of complaints was received from all parts of the town. Queen s House was also badly invaded, and on investigation many of the gutters of the buildings in its vicinity were found to be breeding mosquitoes. The species found were chiefly stegomyia and culex, with a few migratory species. No malaria-carrying mosquitoes were found. In the great majority of cases, blocked or badly-sloped gutters were found to be the chief breeding places. In addition to attending to complaints, the staff was engaged in its routine work of house- to-house inspection in the residential area. The number of complaints received by this department has been steadily increasing, as the figures given below show. The public, with a few exceptions, take no interest in mosquito prevention and expect the Public Health Department to do everything for them. _ With the very small staff of 1 Sub-Inspector, 6 overseers, and 12 coolies, it is impossible to inspect all the premises in the town, and to destroy the breeding places. What is needed is legislation making householders and owners of property responsible for preventing the breeding ot mosquitoes on their premises :— Year. No. of Complaints Rpppi vp<1 1917 191,S 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 45 50 64 79 53 129 123 • • •