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44
"Your Medical Officer reported that all the necessary notices and
advertisements under the regulations had been published.
"Your Committee recommend that our representatives be instructed to ask
the Joint Hospital Board whether some beds (limited to say, half-a-dozen)
could be allocated to Edmonton for critical cases, or cases with bad home
conditions, who might, therefore, be recommended for admission by your
Medical Officer of Health."
"The Medical Officer pointed out that notification is productive of much
more good if provision can be made for the isolation of the worst cases; it is
the sickness-rate, and not the death-rate from measles which is the real criterion
of the extent of the Council's responsibility under the regulations; and as
regards death-rate, the average death-rate from measles for the past 10 years
was 0.320, as compared with 0.116 from scarlet fever, and 0.200 from diphtheria
per 1,000 inhabitants.
"The actual number of deaths was—scarlet fever, 53; diphtheria, 129;
and measles, 203, for the years 1905-14."
WHOOPING COUGH.
There were 13 deaths from this cause, as compared with 17, 9 and 23 in
1914-13-12. This is equal to a death-rate from the disease of 0.19 per 1,000
living. All the deaths occurred amongst children under 5 years of age—6 in
the first-age period, 4 in the second, and 3 in the third. Also 1 Belgian. They
were distributed throughout the year, 4 in September.
INFLUENZA.
3 deaths were registered from this cause, compared with 4, 7 and 4 for
1914-13-12. 2 persons were over 65 years of age, and the other was between
25 and 45 years old.
VENEREAL DISEASES
Syphilis. 9 deaths were recorded as due to this disease; 8 of these were
infants under 1 year of age, and 1 of 15 months. Another was a newly born
Belgian.
Gonorrhoea. No deaths from this disease are recorded.
The Royal Commission will be shortly issuing a report on these diseases.
Let us hope that there will be no delay on the Government's part in putting
their recommendations into effect, or like the report on the Poor Law, its work
will be barren of results.