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Health Office and are available at any time on application.
Diphtheria anti-toxin is also kept at the public Health
Office and at the residences of the Medical Officer of
Health and Sanitary Inspector and can be had at short notice
or application by medical practitioners.
Summary of examinations made:-
for 110.
Diphtheria 56
Tuberculosis 29
Typhoid (water) 2
Typhoid (widal) 1
Ringworm fungus 5
HATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
This work is carried out in this District by the
Public Health Department of the Middlesex County Council.
Yous Medical Officer of Health being the Medical Officer
of the two Infant Welfare Centres in this district.
In considering the cases of deaths of infants under
one year, one is struck by the foot that 10 of the infant
deaths, or 45,4% are due to prematurity and congenital
defeats. This is the highest percentage for a considerable
number of years. It is difficult to account for this, as
our experience at the Welfare Centres shows that
the mothers take very good care of tham selves previous to
the birth of their children. Dentition and convulsions
were responsible for three deaths, half the total number
of deaths of infants that occurred during 1920, No less
than, five of the deaths were due to Diarrhoea and Enteritis.
This disease is caused in the main by contaminated food,
and then abnormally fine and hot summer was very favourable
to the incidence of this disease. Another cause of this
disease may be attributed to the absolute lack in a large
number of working class houses of poper places for the
storage of food. In a large number of instances food is
stored in a dark and ill-ventilated cupboard and milk for
the preparation of infants food kept in this condition it
bound to give rise to intestinal disturbances and irritations
leading to these diseases. These diseases too, prove
rapidly fatal to infants, and skilled treatment is
absolutely necessary. Often the child is seriously ill
"before medical advice is sought and little can be done to
prevent a fatal termination.
During the year there was one death from Scarlet
Fever in a child under one year. This is an extremely rare
occurrence.
An abnormal number of infants deaths together with a
considerable decrease in the number of births has given us
an infantile mortality rate considerably higher than the
last two years. It is no less than 75 per thousand births,
compared with .38 in 1920 and 42 in 1919. In this connection
it is interesting to compare the mortality rate in infants
under one year of age attending the Infant Welflare Centres