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16
TYPHOID FEVER.
It is very satisfactory to record that there has been a marked diminution in the
number of cases of this disease during the past year as compared with the number of
the previous year; 85 cases were notified, being 26 less than in the preceeding year.
The following are the number of cases notified in each year since 1890:—
Year 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894
202 111 91 111 85
Of the 85 cases, 12 terminated fatally, 5 dying within the district and 7 in
hospitals situate without the district. The death-rate per 1000 inhabitants was 010,
and the attack rate was 0 69 per 1000 of the population.
The case-mortality was somewhat lower than that of last year being 14.1, as
compared with 15.3.
ERYSIPELAS.
There were 195 cases of this disease with 5 deaths as against 315 with 15
deaths in 1893. The case mortality was 2.5 as compared with 4.7 in 1893. There
has thus not only been a very great decrease in the amount of the disease which is
notified as Erysipelas, but also a diminution in its virulence.
PUERPERAL FEVER.
There were 5 cases of puerperal fever notified with 2 deaths as compared with 8
cases and 6 deaths in 1893.
MEASLES.
This disease is not included amongst those which are notifiable, although a very
fruitful cause of death in childhood. Of the 65 deaths registered as due to this
cause, 63 were of children under 5 years of age. The annual death-rate was 0.52.
Last year 128 deaths were registered, and the rate was 1.04, or just double what it
was in 1894.
Measles is a much more serious complaint than it is commonly regarded to be,
owing to the frequency with which it is complicated by bronchitis and pneumonia,
conditions which, in this disease, are very apt to run an unfavourable course and prove
fatal.
It is satisfactory to record that measles has been much less prevalent this
year than last.
DIARRHŒAL DISEASE.
To this class of disease 73 deaths were attributed, as against 170 in 1893 and 93
in 1892; 67 were of children below the age of 5 years, and 51 of these were of infants
under 12 months old. Most of the deaths occurred during the months of July,
August and September, the largest number in any one month was in July, viz., 25.
The summer of 1894 was not so hot and dry as that of 1893, and to this fact is
mainly due the great diminution in the number of deaths from diarrhœa.