Annual report of the Medical Department / Federated Malay States.

  • Federated Malay States. Medical Department.
Date:
[1929]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Medical Department / Federated Malay States. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    7/136 (page 3)
    The death-rate in the Malay population is the lowest on record, 22.24 per mille of the estimated population. In the Chinese population the number of births and the birth-rate are the highest on record. The number of Chinese births exceeded the number of Malay births, for the first time on record. The Chinese births and the estimated birth-rate for 1929 were both considerably more than double the figures for 1923. The death-rate among the Chinese was 30.40, as calculated on the estimated population. It was thus the highest of any race. In the Indian population the number of births exceeded the number of deaths : records of all previous years show an excess of deaths over births, with the exception of the years 1924 and 1925 when the figures were approximately equal. The death-rate among Indians was 27.61. For the years 1923, 1924 and 1925 a lower rate was recorded, but with the exception of these years the rate for 1929 is the lowest on record, being more than 6 per mille less than 1928, and nearly 10 per mille less than 1927. Of these three races, Malay, Chinese and Indian, estimated as numbering about 585,000, 545,000 and 415,000, respectively, the Chinese showed the highest birth-rate and death-rate, the Malay the lowest death-rate, and the Indian the lowest birth-rate. I It must always be remembered that these rates are calculated from estimates of the population based on the figures of the census in 1921. The annual rate of increase of the three races since 1921 has been assumed to be equal to an average annual rate of increase obtained from the difference between the census figures of 1911 and 1921. It may well be that this crude estimate is not a close approximation to the actual population in 1929, and the calculated birth and death-rates may be correspondingly incorrect. PRINCIPAL DISEASES. 1.—Malaria. The promise of the first six months of the year was fulfilled, and the records for the whole year show that malaria in 1929 was less prevalent than in either of the two previous years. The figures on which an estimate of the comparative prevalence in different years can be attempted are contained in three series of records : (1) Number of cases of malaria admitted to Government hospitals; in many of these diagnosis was confirmed microscopically; (2) Number of cases of malaria admitted from estates to estate and Government hospitals; (3) Number of deaths registered throughout the country under the heading “Malaria (including Fever)’’. There are many fallacies in calculations based on these records, and the three series are not independent of each other: all that can be obtained is a rough comparison from year to year. Figures from the records for the last three years are shown hereunder : 1927. 1928. 1929. Admissions to Government hospitals 48,927 . .. 49,553 ., .. 35,306 Admissions from estates 41,458 .. .. 40,803 .. . 24,818 Registered deaths 20,736 . .. 20,053 .. ,. 16,968 The deduction from these figures is that the wave of malaria, which was evident during 1927 and 1928, is now passing, or has passed. The reduction in the number of cases admitted to Government hospitals is nearly 30 per cent. There can be no reasonable doubt that the decrease in malarial infection was the factor responsible for the improvement in the general death-rate last year. No figures have been collected to show the monthly incidence of malaria throughout the country generally. Study of the records of admissions of malarial cases to Government hospitals in Negri Sembilan reveals a periodic variation during the year which corresponds almost exactly with monthly averages for that State for the last five years. There was a high peak in May; the admissions during May, June and July were more than half the number of admissions during the other nine months of the year; or, to put it in another way, the average number of cases admitted monthly in May, June and July was more than 50 per cent, in excess of the monthly average for the rest of the year. These figures from Negri Sembilan may or may not be found to correspond with figures for the other States.