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24
CAUSES OF SICKNESS IN THE BOROUGH.
The Ministry of Health directs that any causes of sickness and invalidity
which have been specially noteworthy in the area during the year should
be specified.
The incidence of the infectious diseases is dealt with in Section VI.
of this report.
It is difficult to write definitely on the incidence of sickness generally,
as the Medical Officer of Health has no access to sickness returns which
would render a complete and accurate survey possible. The information
that can be given is therefore mainly based on impressions gleaned from
local general practitioners, from deductions on the incidence of certain
diseases in the death returns and from details as to persons who receive
medical relief from the Public Assistance Committee.
The year, generally, was an unfavourable one from a meteorological
point of view. Noteworthy features were the excess of sunshine,
deficiency of rainfall, the higher summer temperatures, the low day and
night temperatures during the cold spells in January and December, the
blizzard in February, and the abnormal sequence of thunderstorms in
June. As a consequence, there was a considerable amount of respiratory
and rheumatic affections during the early part of the year and the
deaths from diseases of this character somewhat higher than in previous
years. The number of deaths is, of course, no measure of the amount
of sickness and can only be regarded as an index. Influenza was less
prevalent than the average incidence of the disease during the preceding
five years. Judged by the notifications received, there was a slight
decrease in the amount of pneumonia, 117 notifications being received,
as compared with 121 in the previous year.
There was a large increase in the number of cases of notifiable infectious
disease.
No special effects of any particular occupation, prejudically affecting
the health of workers therein, have been reported.