Annual report of the Public Health Department / Zanzibar Protectorate.

  • Zanzibar. Public Health Department.
Date:
[1909]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report of the Public Health Department / Zanzibar Protectorate. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    3JLnj.IJ.SNI > </> z □ z 3 i V / /a V Property.#? {fee ROHS ViSilTOTR. Case No Co y? /Lv Sir William Simpson .Report oe the Public Health Department’s Work eor the Year 1909. [Enclosure in Mr. Clarke’s No. 154 of June 7, 1910.] A Y it < c ^ ft -^(L- Act ^, ^ Dr. .4. H. Spurrier to Captain Barton. ■fSir, I HAVE the honour to present a Report of the Public Health Department’s work for the year 1909, together with certain considerations on the public health of the town of Zanzibar, and of the islands generally. Deaths. The deaths in the town and suburban districts numbered— 1,154 in against { 1’249 iu I 1,204 in 1909 1908 1907 —Dr. Spurrier believes that the census of the town which has been recently taken, and, in regard to which I hope shortly to be able to write to you, considerably underestimates the population. He would put the number at about 50,000, which would bring the death rate to such a figure as might reasonably be expected in a place like Zanzibar. giving for the past year a mortality of 15*4 per 1,000 if calculated on a town and suburban population of 75,000. This estimate of the total population is adhered to for comparative purposes, it being that adopted for the past five years. A recent attempt to make a census shows the population of this area to be only 40,000. This would make the death rate abnormally high, and there seems nothing to indicate that. The death rate of Calcutta, a very unhealthy city, is usually . 31-6 per 1,000. The deaths here, too, are run up by the many thousands of incomers from the north and Somali coasts in the north-east monsoon, many of whom arrive in a state of poverty, and with advanced chest diseases, aggravated by the long exposure of the journey, and when here have no homes, but lie on the beach exposed to all weathers, and are often found dead. There is no doubt, on the other hand, that the crowded bazaars of Zanzibar town in the day¬ time give a fallacious idea of the population, as many thousands of people come into town daily from the shambas, and leave again before night. Many people are taken to the shambas when ill [654 a] E i \
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