View report page

WHOOPING COUGH. 31
Institutional Treatment.—Removal to hospital is comparatively rare. Only 11 cases—
4 in 1919 and 7 in 1920—were admitted to institutions (9 to M.A.B. Hospitals and 2 to
Infirmary) as cases of whooping cough, equal to 21 per cent, of the reported cases, as
compared with 5.4 per cent, during 1914-18.
Home Nursing.—Only one case (in 1920) needed the services of the District Nurses.
Fatality.—The total fatality in 1919 was 0.6 per cent., but rose to 3.9 in 1920. For the
two years the fatality averaged 2.9 per cent., as compared with 6.1 during 1909-13.
The lower fatality was limited to patients aged 2 years and upwards. At younger ages it was
considerably higher during 1919-20 than during 1914-18, those for males during 1919-20 being
—under 1 year, 22.2 per cent.; 1-2 years, 27.2 ; and tbose for females—under 1 year, 38.4 and
1-2 years, 25.0. The fatalities observed during 1914-18 (in the same order) were 23.1,
165, 30.5 and 17.6 per cent.
Mortality.—The deaths recorded were—in 1919, 1, and in 1920, 14. The average for the
two years was 8, as compared with averages of 35 and 30 during 1909-13 and 1914-18.
Deaths in Institutions.—Although so few cases are removed to hospital the proportion of
deaths in Institutions was considerably greater in 1919-20 (53.3 per cent.) than in 1909-13
(27.0 percent, or 1914-18 (34.8 per cent.) These high proportions are doubtless due to inmates
succumbing to whooping cough after admission for other diseases.
Chicken-pox.—Records are kept of cases of this disease, although very little interest
attaches to its prevalence except when small-pox is prevalent or threatens to become so. In
1919, 261 cases were reported and in 1920, 567. The average for the two years was 414, as
pompared with 490 during 1909-13 and 572 during 1914-18. In 1919 more than half the cases
were reported in the first three months of the year and in 1920 in the last three.
Mumps.—During the two years 304 cases were reported—150 in 1919 and 154 in 1920—
giving an average of 152, as compared with averages of 251 during 1909-13 and 295 during
1914-18. Nearly all the cases are known through the schools.
Ringworm.—As was anticipated a return to (approximately) normal conditions of school
medical inspection has resulted in an increase in the number of cases reported, the total for
the two years being 393—189 in 1919 and 204 in 1920. The average for the two years—196 —
was above the prae-war average (1909-13) of 172 as well as that of the war (1914-18), 140.