[Report 1904] / Medical Officer of Health, Stanley (Co. Durham) U.D.C.

  • Stanley (Durham, England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1904] / Medical Officer of Health, Stanley (Co. Durham) U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/18
    Whooping Cough appeared in January, and cases continually cropped up* during the following two months. It re-appeared in October to repeat the same course. /nfectious HospitafSi Ample Hospital accommodation for infectious diseases has been provided, and it is a matter for regret that its advantages are not more utilised. In the case of Smallpox, the patient is at once removed without any objection being raised ; it is otherwise with those suffering from Scarlatina, etc. The former causes a certain amount of dread, the latter none whatever. The great pre¬ judice that at first existed against the Hospitals is fast passing away. VITAL STATISTICS. The number of births registered during the year was G36, giving a birth-rate of 37*4, and the deaths 283, giving a death-rate of 16 6, estimating the population at 17,000 at the end of June. Both the birth-rate and death-rate are lower than those of the previous year. Deaths from Zymotic Diseases (including Diarrhoea) amounted to 35, being 9 below those for the year 1903, and equal to about 12 percent, of the whole. Infantile mortality gave a high proportion ; those that died under the age of one year were 109, being slightly over a third of the whole; whilst, if 53, the number that occurred between one and five years, were added, the result would show that more than half the total mortality succoinbed before reaching the end of their fifth year. The position that mothers occupy in colliery districts should be favourable to the rearing of children, as they are not employed in manual labour outside their domestic duties, yet the mortality is most serious. Infectious Diseases play a small part; of the 109 deaths under the age of one year, only 10 were due to preventable diseases, so called. In my opinion, “ Constitutional Disease is the most prominent factor in the mortality amongst infants.