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

  • Colombo (Sri Lanka). Public Health Department.
Date:
[1924]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

    3/100 (page 25)
    APPENDIX C. REPORT OF THE MEDICAL OFFICER OF HEALTH FOR 1924. I have the honour to forward the Annual Report of the Public Health Department for the year 1924. CONTENTS. Part I. Vital Statistics. Introductory Note. 1. Meteorology. 2. Population. 3. Births. 4. Deaths. 5. Ward Deaths. 6. Principal Causes of Deaths. 7. Race Deaths. 8. Infant Deaths. 9. Infectious Diseases. 10. Pneumonia. 11. Influenza. 12. Phthisis. 13. Cholera. 14. Enteric Fever. 15. Diarrhoea. 16. Dysentery. 17. Smallpox. 18. Plague. 19. Miscellaneous Diseases. Part II. 20. Expenditure. 21. Improvements, New Works, &c. 22. General Sanitary Work. 23. Food Inspection. 24. Dairies and Milk Supply. 25. Bakeries. Administration. 26. Eating-houses. 27. Aerated Water Factories. 28. Laundries. 29. Slaughter-house. 30. Mosquito Prevention. 31. Disinfection and Cleans¬ ing. 32. Maternity and Child Welfare. 33. Dispensaries- 34. Enteric Hospital and Segregation Camp. 35. Housing. 36. Staff. Annexures. B.—Report of Municipal Bacteriologist. | C.—Report of City Analyst. Introductory Note. The year 1924 was exceptionally wet, with a total rainfall of 122'39 inches, which is 39*42 inches above the average. The birth-rate, which rose so remarkably in 1920-21, was still above the average in 1924, when it stood at 27*2 per 1,000, as against the decennial average of 26*4. The remarkable increase in the Malay birth-rate, which has been recorded during recent years, appears to be due chiefly to intermarriage between Malays and other races, and the registration of all the children born of such unions as Malays. It is probable, however, that, as in the case of other races, there has been a real increase in their birth-rate during the last five years. The health of the population showed a marked improvement compared with the high death-rate of the previous year, the crude death-rate being 29*3 per 1,000 as against 35*5 per 1,000 in 1923. This crude death-rate is reckoned upon an estimated mean population of 253,226, but there is reason to believe that the actual mean population in 1924 was not less than 280,000, which would give a crude death-rate of 24*8, and a corrected death-rate of 24*0 per 1,000. All the principal diseases contributed towards the improvement in the death-rate. Although the mortality from phthisis has showed a tendency to decline since 1909, it is a significant fact that the death-rate from this cause in 1924 was only slightly lower than it was thirteen years ago, viz., 2*69 in 1924 as against 2*96 in 1911. This cannot be regarded as at all satisfactory, and it is urged that stronger measures should be adopted to prevent the spread of this disease which, next to pneumonia, is the chief cause of deaths in Colombo. While it is recognized that bad housing conditions have much to do with the high incidence of phthisis here, the remedy for this defect must necessarily take a long time, and involve the expenditure of vast sums of money, and it is urged that in the meantime the problem should be tackled, as in the case of other destructive infectious diseases, by the segregation, on a more extensive scale than hitherto, of persons in the advanced and highly infectious stages of the disease. If the unfortunate victims of this disease cannot afford to provide satisfactory home isolation they should nevertheless be prevented from exposing others to infection and should be compelled to go into an isolation hospital. This will entail the provision of much more hospital accommodation than is at present available, but the cost thereof would be a mere bagatelle compared with the cost to the community now which results from the disabling and destructive effects of this disease. An unusual and fortunately non-fatal outbreak of food poisoning, as the result of infection of ice cream by B. suipestifer, occurred, an interesting account of which is given in Dr. Hirst’s report. Primary pneumonic plague appeared for the first time in Colombo, when a series of seven cases occurred, an account of which is given in Section XVIII. and in Dr. Hirst’s report. It is hoped that this demonstration of the liability to attack by this the most deadly form of plague, will, once for all, dispose of the attempts to secure the permission of the Council to allow the establish¬ ment in the town of a private hospital for the reception and treatment of plague cases.