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6
working classes, it was urgently required. Last year further provision
was made for the isolation and hospital treatment of cases of
Puerperal Fever. These developments are the outcome of the
interest and attention that has been given to the subject of
Maternal Mortality. While a great reduction has taken place in
infant mortality during the last quarter of a century, no corresponding
reduction has taken place in the deaths of 'mothers from diseases
and accidents of childbirth. Health Authorities are directing
their attention to the causes of these deaths and are concentrating
on the measures that as likely to remove them and so render the
function of childbearing as free from accidents and dangers as it
is possible to make it.
In giving prominence to the needs and the work of Maternity
and Child Welfare we must not overlook other causes and diseases
which figure very largely in our records of disease and death. Heart
disease, cancer, and tuberculosis still occupy the leading places in
the mortality bill, and they call for increasing labour and investigation
in order to reduce the death rate from these diseases.
More attention is being given to the prevention of heart disease,
and especially to acute rheumatism, which is the cause of much
disability and fatal heart disease. Special treatment in institutions
of children suffering from acute rheumatism will, it is hoped, lead
to a reduction in the amount of heart disease attributable to this
cause.
The information and advice now given to the Public with
regard to the early signs of cancer should lead to the recognition
of this disease in its earliest stages and result in its being brought
under treatment at a time when appropriate treatment 'may bring
about a cure.
The death rate from Tuberculosis is declining slowly, but
steadily, and this disease is now being attacked from many sides.
Some of the recent Orders and Regulations of the Ministry aim at
the prevention of its spread by channels which have contributed to
the spread of the disease in the past. For instance, the following:—