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35
COMMUNICABLE DISEASES NON-NOTIFIABLE.
We can partly judge of the prevalence of these diseases by the death
returns. The deaths from measles have been two less than last year, and
the deaths from whooping cough have been less than half. The deaths from
diarrhoea have been 11 more than last year; from influenza, 9 instead of 14;
and from phthisis only 1 more; and from other forms of tubercle, 5 more
than last year.
A further knowledge of the prevalence of these diseases can be gained
from the notifications received from the head teachers, when they are sent in
fully and regularly to the Medical Officer of Health.
DIARRHCEA.
Forty-one deaths occurred from diarrheva and epidemic enteritis, as
compared with 32, 114 and 56, for 1907-6-5. The death-rate from the disease
is .68 per thousand of the population, as compared with .53 last year. Of
these deaths, 31 occurred in children under one year of age, giving an infantile
mortality rate for the year from this cause of just over 16 per
thousand nett births, instead of 13 as in 1907, and 49 in 1906.
Deaths from diarrhoeal diseases occur mainly between one month and
nine months of age, a period when the infant who could be breast-fed with
entire safety, is tested with unclean cows' milk, and samples of grown-up
persons' diet. The advice on diet, personally given by the Lady Health
Visitor, has been very useful.
MEASLES.
There were 19 deaths noted, compared with 21, 19 and 27, in 1907-6-5.
This number of deaths is equal to a death-rate from measles of 0.31 per
thousand living. As in previous years, the greatest mortality occurred in
the second age-period (one to five years), and in this group it accounted
for 13 out of the 19 deaths, five of the others being infants, and one death
occurred in a child over five years of age. " It is during the second ageperiod
that school attendance in the baby classes is first commenced, and owing
to the high susceptibility of these children to measles, and to the favourable
conditions which school attendance offers for its spread amongst them, it is not
to be wondered at that these school infants not only suffer themselves, but
also form the chief channel through which infection is carried, often with
fatal results, to the still younger babies at home." This last sentence is a