Medical Officer's annual report [to] Durban Corporation.

  • Durban (South Africa). Public Health Department.
Date:
[1952]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical Officer's annual report [to] Durban Corporation. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    3/76 (page 1)
    Wellcome Library' for the History and Understanding 1 1 of Medicine CITY HEALTH DEPARTMENT. REPORT “ A ” Page No. 1. Vital Statistics. 6 2. Infectious Diseases . 22 3. Tuberculosis . 25 4. Venereal Diseases . ... . ... 31 5. Plague and Rodent Control. 37 6. Other Communicable or Preventable Diseases . 37 7. Water Supply. 40 8. Nightsoil, Slop-water and Refuse . 40 9. Meat Supplies. 41 10. Milk Supplies. 42 11. Other Food Supplies. 43 12. Family Health Service 45 13. General Sanitation . 54 14. Health Inspection . 55 Field Hygiene. 56 Public Health Education . 61 15. Health Staff . 67 REPORT “B” Housing. 68 1st August, 1952. To His Worship the Mayor and City Councillors of the City of Durban. Ladies and Gentlemen, I have the honour to present the Annual Report on the health, sanitary and housing conditions of the City of Durban for the year ending 30th June, 1952. In this introduction to the Report, the intention is not only to comment on certain aspects of the work of the City Health Department which may not be mentioned in the body of the Report itself but also to discuss one or two matters which lie outside the strict province of preventive medicine and public health but which, never¬ theless, are indirectly related and allied to these disciplines. Generally speaking, steady progress has been maintained by the Department throughout the year under review. Certain policies have taken a more definite shape and the pattern of their future development has become clearer. At its best, public health work is never spectacular for except in often distant retrospect there is nothing in any of its solid achievements to fire the imagination. But a comparative review of the principal Vital Statistics for an area will indicate trends and it is pleasing to report that, except for a negligible increase in the European Death Rate, the figures for all races in respect of Birth Rates, Death Rates and Infantile Mortality show a favourable trend and are better than those which appeared last year. The Infantile Mortality rates for all races, in fact, are the best ever recorded in the City. For the second year in succession, the town has been fortunate in not experiencing any epidemic or outbreak of disease. At one stage, an increase in the notification of poliomyelitis cases presaged an outbreak of the disease and gave rise to a certain degree of apprehension. But in the course of a few weeks the threat passed. Whilst, therefore, there is cause for satisfaction in several directions, there are two problems which cast their shadows over the public health scene. I refer to the abnormal prevalence of tuberculosis amongst all racial groups and to the high incidence of severe amoebiasis suffered by members of the Bantu community. The former is a social disease, the solution of which predicates improved standards of housing and nutrition. Possibly the same holds true, up to a point, for Bantu amoebiasis in Durban, but there are so many gaps in our knowledge of the local problem that one can only speculate on the aetiology and pathogenesis of the disease insofar as it affects our indigenous population. This brings one to a point where it would be material and relevant to furnish a survey of the numerous avenues through which this Department is assisted and served by external institutions and agencies whether they be governmental, state-aided or voluntary in nature. Within the City is situated the largest Tuberculosis Hospital in the Union with a capacity of approximately 1,200 beds. In a few months’ time, it is likely that the number of beds will be increased to 1,350 and probably in the next year or so to 1,500. Staffed by experts and equipped with every modern device, the Hospital forms one of the City’s principal bastions in its fight against tuberculosis. Another Government institution which plays a prominent part, not only in the health activities of the town but elsewhere in the country, is the Institute of Family and Community Health—the headquarters and training school of the Union’s Health Centre Service. Particularly in the southern area of the City, the work of the Depart¬ ment and the Institute are closely integrated and I am glad to report that the relationships between the two organisations, founded as they are on a common objective, have always been cordial and co-operative. It has been felt that this Report would be incomplete without some reference to the work carried out by the Institute during the year and, for this reason, a brief review of the Institute’s activities has been included. For this, I am indebted to Dr. S. Kark, Medical Officer in Charge, to whom I tender my grateful acknowledgments. The Amoebiasis Research Unit, sponsored by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and by the Natal Provincial Administration, was established in 1949 and is based on the King Edward VIII Hospital. Since its inception, the Unit has published more than a score of papers dealing with its research projects. Largely as a result of its investigation, improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease have been established and the death rate amongst Bantu patients in the Hospital has been reduced within a few years from ten to two per cent. Whilst most of the work of the Unit has, hitherto, been devoted to clinical trials with drugs supplied from all over the world, certain features of the disease as it appears locally and elsewhere in Southern Africa have not been overlooked. The results of these investigations are dealt with in the Report and it will readily be appreciated that the conclusions arrived at by this Unit may, in time, be of considerable importance and benefit to the Depart¬ ment in its endeavours to control the incidence of the disease especially in the local Bantu, amongst whom it forms a major health problem.