[Report 1897] / Medical Officer of Health, Staffordshire County Council.

  • Staffordshire (England). County Council.
Date:
1897
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1897] / Medical Officer of Health, Staffordshire County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    41/142 (page 33)
    In his report for the previous year, the Medical Officer of Health of Bilston referred to the mortality from whooping cough as being exceptionally high, and in this year’s report he calls attention to a greatly diminished mortality, the number of deaths for the two years being respectively 17 and 6. The Medical Officer of Health of Sedgley, on the other hand, states that whooping cough was more fatal in 1897 than in any year within his knowledge. The Medical Officer of Health of Smallthorne—where among a total of 20 deaths from one or other of the seven chief zymotic diseases whooping cough caused 8 deaths—points out that the serious character of the disease is not sufficiently recognised, and that carelessness and want of thought on the part of parents lead to needless deaths. Enteric Fever.—This disease, which must be looked upon as entirely preventable, caused 100 deaths, as against 140 in 1896, equal to a rate of 0H2 as compared with 0-17- Of these, 86 occurred in urban, and 14 in rural districts, equalling a rate respectively of B14 and (M)6. In the following table corresponding figures are shown for the past nine years :—- ENTERIC FEVER. 1889. 1890. 1891. 1892. 1893. 1894. 1895. 1896. 1897. g Number of deaths.... 106 74 Ill 85 117 77 129 118 86* P Rate per 1000. 0-20 0T3 0'21 0T5 0-20 0T3 0-22 0-20 0T4* Number of deaths.... 26 34 35 24 32 18 19 22 14 Ph Rate per 1000. 0T0 0-13 0T2 0T0 0T3 0-08 0-08 0*09 0-06 * Excluding Brownhills. In the report of the Medical Officer of Health of Brierley Hill certain remarks appear which reflect serious discredit upon those who are responsible for enforcing the provisions of the Public Health Acts in that district. It appears that in no less than four cases enteric fever appeared in houses which had previously been attacked, and in which, on the second occasion, ‘‘precisely the same insanitary conditions” which were reported in the first instance still existed. With reference