Annual report on the Medical Department / Straits Settlements.

  • Straits Settlements. Medical Department
Date:
[1931]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Medical Department / Straits Settlements. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/148 page 8
    (f).—Bowel Diseases Dysentery, as a cause of death was, in common with most other diseases, less evident than in recent years. There were 620 deaths compared with 673, 902, 1,096, 1,015 and 770 in the five previous years. Of the deaths occurring in hospitals, 103 were ascribed to amoebic dysentery, 117 to bacillary dysentery and 29 to undefined dysentery. The Hospital records point to the amoebic form being the more prevalent in the Straits Settlements in the proportion of about 4 cases of amoebic dysentery to 3 cases of bacillary dysentery. The bacillary form, however, shows the higher case mortality, 35'67 per cent, for bacillary dysentery against 25^49 per cent, for amoebic dysentery. Diarrhoea and Enteritis were recorded as the causes of 1,247 deaths in 1931 com¬ pared with 1,380, 1,230, 1,409, 1,169 and 1,464 in the five previous years. Enteric Fever.—There were 127 deaths recorded as due to typhoid and para¬ typhoid fevers. 89 of these deaths occurred in the Settlement of Singapore. The number of cases notified to the Singapore Municipality was 150. The case mortality is high probably due to the patients’ delay in seeking treatment. It is found that 3rd class patients seldom enter hospital before the end of the second week of the disease, the patients having worked in many cases up to the day of admission : — Deaths in the Colony Year Cases notified in Singapore Municipality 1926 120 197 1927 188 235 1928 174 230 1929 118 133 1930 ... 132 156 1931 127 150 (g).—Diphtheria There were 43 deaths under this heading, which is the largest number of deaths recorded in any of the past six years. It is probable that the increase is due to more accurate diagnosis during the patients’ illness : — Year Deaths in the Colony Cases notified in Singapore Municipality 1926 15 46 1927 16 29 1928 21 59 1929 31 57 1930 31 63 I93i 43 65 (h).—Scarlet Fever There were no cases of scarlet fever observed in the Straits Settlements. (i).—Venereal Diseases There was an increase in total attendances at venereal disease clinics and dispen¬ saries. The numbers were 346,057 in 1931 against 267,746 in 1930. The increase was not due to more cases of venereal disease, but was due to the greater number of times that each new case attended the Clinics. There was actually a decrease in the number of new infections seeking treatment. The number of new cases was 26,321 in 1931 against 33,719 in 1930. (For details of anti-venereal work vide Appendix G, page 91).
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3