[Report 1909] / Medical Officer of Health, Aldershot U.D.C.

  • Aldershot (England). Urban District Council.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1909] / Medical Officer of Health, Aldershot U.D.C. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/80 (page 10)
    lO 'riic doatli rate calculated ]jer i,ooo of the estimated j)0|)ulati()ii, reached ])ractica]ly the lowest figure (ui record. Unxertipieu Di'Atiis.—10 deaths were uncertifed : 8 in tlie d'own, 2 in the Camp. 'I'hose in which there may be some cause for suspicion are doulUless reported to the Corcmer, but the proportion in tlie d'own, namelv, 4'3 ])er cent, of the total deaths, is much higher than it ought to be. IxouESTS.— 25 incjuests (Town 15, S. Camj) 10) were held during the year. IxFANTii.E Mortality.—90 deaths of children under i year of age took jdace in Aldershot during 1908, corres- pcmding to a mortality of 85 per 1,000 registered births for the Y’liole district ; one of the lowest rates in the whole country. If one takes the d'own and the Camp separately, the rate in the d'own is seen to be 105, and that in tlie Cam]) 65 per 1,000 births. Reliance on these fgures would, lioweA'er, be misleading if regarded separately ; as I have ])ointed out in previous re])orts, a large number of births which belong to residents in the d'own take place in the Lying-in I lospital in the Camj), and are registered in the Cam]). A certain proportion of these infants, however, die during the frst year, after liaving been removed to their parents’ cjuarters in the d'own ; so that the rate of mortality is unduly raised in the Town, owing to the smaller number of births registered there, and unduly decreased in the Camp from the o])pf)site cause. vSo that it is fairer and more accurate to state the Infantile Mor- tality Rate for the whole district—namely, 85 per 1,000 registered births. As remarked in former Annual Reports, premature birtli accounts for the largest number of deaths from an in- dividual cause, d'he proportion of these deaths (namely, 25 ])er cent, of the total deaths) is excessive, as it always is in garrison towns, and is proTably exjilained by the fre(]uency of sy])hilitic disease in the parents. 9 deaths resulted from Wdiooping Cough, and 20 from diseases of the res])iratory organs, some of these latter possibly being the results of former Mhiooping Cough. Deaths from diarrhocal diseases were comjiaratively small in number, only 10 occurring from these diseases, and mainly between the ages of 4 months and 8 months. The summer and autumn months were cof)l and wet, and therefore especially favourable to