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42
DEATHS IN RELATION TO DISEASE.
A list of the causes of deaths, with the ages at which they occurred, will be
found in Table III. of the Ministry of Health series on page 76. This Table
also shows the distribution of deaths according to cause in the various registration
sub-districts.
The following notes with regard to certain of the causes which contributed most
largely to the death rate, may be of interest.
DIARRHOEAL DISEASES.
The total number of deaths registered as due to diarrhoea and enteritis
(inflammation of the bowels), was 17, equal to 0.16 per 1,000 of the population.
As a general rule, the majority of deaths from this cause occur amongst infants,
and in 1922, as a matter of fact, all those who died were less than 1 year of age.
In 1921 the deaths from diarrhoeal diseases numbered 22, all the victims being
babies. In 1922, therefore, there was a reduction in the total.
Deaths from diarrhoeal diseases are commonly found to vary with the weather
conditions, being in general higher when the summer is warm and dry, lower when
it is cold and wet.
They vary also, with the sanitary condition of the district and the amount of
welfare work done on behalf of infants.
The year 1922, from the point of view of weather, being cold and wet, cannot
be called a "diarrhoea year," and the weather may therefore have had something to
do with the low mortality. It is safe and right to claim, however, that to some,
even to a large, extent cases were remarkably few because during the year welfare
and sanitary work, despite tremendous difficulties, was steadily gone on with.
Taking all things into consideration, indeed, it may be regarded as reflecting credit
on all parties concerned, the mothers of the babies and health workers alike, that the
death figure was no higher than 17, and that in recent years, even when the weather
conditions have been against the babies, the fatalities from this most dreadful of all
infant scourges have been, comparatively speaking, few.
Particularly in relation to diarrhoea amongst children, a very great deal of
educational work is done at the centres of the Health Society and in the homes by
health visitors and inspectors, and during the year there was the usual wide
distribution of special leaflets on diarrhoea, flies in relation to disease, etc.
INFECTIOUS (COMMUNICABLE) DISEASES.
The number of deaths due to each of the diseases included in this group is
referred to when dealing specifically with the disease under the heading "Prevalence
of and Control over Infectious Diseases." Excluding influenza (which caused
43 deaths), the diseases contributing to the total of 100 deaths were—diphtheria, 30;
scarlet fever, 4; whooping cough, 14; and, as already noted, diarrhoea, 17.
PHTHISIS AND OTHER TUBERCULOUS DISEASES.
The total deaths due to the diseases dealt with under this heading, viz., phthisis
(pulmonary tuberculosis or consumption of the lungs), tuberculous meningitis,
general tuberculosis, tabes mesenterica, and all conditions due to the germ of
consumption, numbered 127, which is greater by 10 than the figure for 1921.