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24
MEASLES.
(Decennial average 110.)
Measles caused 82 deaths, of which all but eight were amongst
young children aged less than five years, indicating a mortality of
4.0 per 1,000 on the estimated population under five years of age.
NOTIFICATION OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES.
A total of 2,976 notification certificates have been received during
the year. 73 of the certificates were duplicate notifications, that is
to say, the same case was reported by two or more separate medical
men. Particulars of the cases are shewn month by month,
together with the Hospital admissions and discharges, in the accompanying
table. The usual spot maps indicating the distribution
of the cases are also submitted.
If one may judge from the Report of the Asylums Board, many
of these cases were wrongly diagnosed, as will be obvious from the
following particulars supplied by the Medical Superintendents of
the various Hospitals :—
Small Pox. —2,455 cases sent to Hospital on notification certificates
were all admitted, but 108 persons were afterwards found
not to be suffering from Small Pox; 183 others also sent on notification
certificates, were refused admission and sent back to their
homes after examination, as they appeared not to be suffering from
Small Pox, making a total of 301 unfortunate persons who had a
fruitless journey in an ambulance through incorrect notification
certificates.
Fever and Diphtheria. —18,674 persons who were certified as
suffering from one of these two diseases were admitted to Hospital,
but of these 732 were found to be suffering from other diseases.
How many of the unremoved notified cases were incorrectly described
no one can say, as there is no means of checking the opinion
of the Medical attendant.