Annual report on the Medical Department / Straits Settlements.

  • Straits Settlements. Medical Department.
Date:
[1926]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Medical Department / Straits Settlements. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    15/198 (page 11)
    (4) Diarrhoea and Enteritis.— I hey caused 1,169 deaths against 1,043 and 933 in the two previous years. Venereal Diseases A separate Social Hygiene Branch of the Medical Department was formed under the charge of Dr. W. M. Chambers in March, 1926. Dr. Chambers, who had just returned from home, spent the previous six months in the study of modern social hygiene methods in England, Denmark, Germany and France. Government appointed a Social Hygiene Advisory Board in Singapore, composed of representatives of Government, the Army, the Navy, the Municipality, the Straits Association, and other Public bodies of various nationalities. Most of the members are medical men. The Board held three meetings during the year. A large amount of anti-venereal propaganda was carried out: films lent by the British Social Hygiene Council were shown, lectures were delivered and pamphlets in English. Chinese, Tamil and Malay, were distributed. In-patients treated for venereal disease during the year numbered 5.371, while the out-patient attendances were 54,090. * Towards the end of the year the numbers of out-patients were increasing rapidly. The Clinic for treating seamen at Tanjong Pagar was specially successful. Professor Bostock Hill, a member of the Executive Committee of the British Social Hygiene Council visited the Branch in October and gave Government the benefit of his valuable advice. A report by the Chief Medical Officer, Social Hygiene, is included as Appendix L. Leprosy (a) The number admitted to institutions increased by 74 as against 103 in 1925. Men f Pulau Jerejak Remained ... 703 Admitted 147 Died 117 Absconded 22 Discharged 4 Remained 707 1 Singapore ... 36 8l 10 II 8 37 Women f Penang ... 44 4 9 — — 39 j Singapore ... 39 16 4 — — 5i Total ... 822 248 140 33 12 834 Deaths in 1925 were 143. (b) A commencement was made with the building of sixty separate huts for lepers at the Male Leper Settlement, Pulau Jerejak. The female lepers in Singapore were moved from their overcrowded quarters at Kandang Kerbau to a spacious camp at Trafalgar where their general health has much improved. (r) Treatment — and the death-rate is -Nearly all the still decreasing. lepers are voluntarily under treatment 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 Cases ... 810 868 888 891 996 1,070 Deaths ... ... 231 207 164 150 M3 140 The pure expressed oil of Hydnocarpus has again given the best results.