Annual report on the Medical Department, Brunei.

  • Brunei. Medical Department.
Date:
[1934]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Medical Department, Brunei. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    13. Expenditure by other Departments on Medical and Health works was $12,835.86 making a total State expenditure on Medical and Health matters of $50,535.88. This was 9% of the total State expenditure. Details are given in Appendix II. III.—MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE 14. A Maternity and Child Welfare service has been maintained with one fully qualified nurse and one locally trained midwife. 15. Four hundred and thirty-six Maternity cases were attended in their own homes with only one death (from severe post partum hsemorrhage). 16. There were only 2 cases of puerperal fever amongst the 436 cases attended. 17. In addition to the Maternity cases, 1,624 other cases were seen in the clinic. Details are given in Appendix III. IV.—PUBLIC HEALTH (a) General 18. The scattered nature of the population and the inaccessi¬ bility of large parts of the State render Public Health measures difficult if not impossible except in the main centres of population. 19. Ascariasis is so common as to be the rule amongst children. The stools of all school children are examined annually for ova and infected children are treated. 20. Ankylostomiasis is much less common. Figures are given in Appendix VI. 21. There was no major epidemic of infectious disease during the year. 22. There was a severe outbreak of Beri-Beri towards the end of the year, due presumably to the poor local rice harvest. 23. The Beri-Beri was particularly severe on Labu Estate. At one time nearly half the labour force was incapacitated. Curative and preventive measures entirely cleared this up before the end of the year. 24. Less than 1% of deaths were certified by Medical Practi¬ tioners but since even a number of these were certified from scanty data, the figures for causes of death (given in Appendix IV Table 4) are unreliable. (b) Malaria 25. Malaria is fairly common throughout the State but is not bad in the main centres where anti-malarial measures are taken. 26. Four hundred and twenty-one Blood films were examined in Brunei Hospital with 37 positive. Laboratory returns are shown in Appendix V. Unfortunately the Tutong Laboratory records were lost. 27. Spleen Rates.—The highest spleen rate amongst school children was 25.5% at Muara and the lowest nil at Lubok Pulau and Bangar. The rate for the whole State amongst school children was 4.3%. Details are given in Appendix VI.
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