The Straits Settlements medical report.

  • Straits Settlements. Medical Department.
Date:
[1902]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Straits Settlements medical report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/74 (page 12)
    2. The total number of deaths registered was 5,787’> a- compared with 5>26° for the previous year; of these 4,510 were registered within Municipal Limits and 1,277 in die Country Districts. On an estimated population of 129,462, this gives a crude mortality of 4470 per mille. Eliminating the deaths at Pulau Jerejak, 99, (Leper Asylum 73, Quarantine Station 26), and of those dying shortly after arrival in the Colony, 415, (Town 399, Country 16), the corrected death-rate for the whole Island comes to 4073 per mille ; 43 09 per mille for the population within Municipal Limits, and 34’ 10 per mille for the Country. 3. Many causes may be assigned as contributing to the high death-rate, but the chief factor of all is immigration. A reference to the report on Quarantine for the year will shew that the total number of deck-passengers inspected on arrival alone far exceeded the total population of Penang, and the number inspected does not by any means represent the whole number arriving. Penang, like Singapore, is a great distributing centre of immigration for the Straits and adjacent countries ; it acts the part indeed of a gigantic sieve, retaining for the most part those immigrants who are loo infirm to proceed further. If those countries from which immigration is chiefly drawn have had the misfortune to have been afflicted with pestilence, famine, or war, then the number of immigrants arriving here broken down in health is increased and our death-rate is eventually abnormally raised. As the immigrants are for the most part adults, one is not astonished to find that nearly half the deaths here are among adults from 26 to 45 years of age. It naturally follows also that, as the greatest amount of immigration is from China, the death-rate for Chinese here is far higher than that for other Nationalities, the next on the list being Tamils. 4. The prevalence of zymotic disease contributed in a minor degree to raise the death-rate. The following are the statistics :— Small-pox.— There were 314 cases reported (Town 251, Country 53, imported 10) and 91 deaths, including 34 either found dead or reported after death. The chief class to suffer were adult Klings who in most cases were found not to have been vaccinated in India during childhood. One hundred and ninety-six (196) cases were treated in the Quarantine Camp, and seven Europeans (5 imported) in the European Small-pox Hospital. Cholera.—There were 51 cases and 32 deaths. No fewer than 46 of the cases were imported, 42 of them being passengers landed at the Quarantine Station. Typhoid Fever.— This disease appears to have been unusually prevalent all over the east this year. Eighty-eight (88) cases were reported in Penang. In the appendix will be found further particulars of those admitted to the General Hospital. Dengue.—This disease, which reached Penang from China and Singapore towards the end of 1901, assumed epidemic proportions during the first few months of the year, and one or two cases were reported as late as September. No deaths were reported as directly due to dengue, but an observation by Dr. MANSON that the general mortality rises during a visitation of this disease certainly held good, his explanation being that, although in itself a benign disease, it may become a public danger by lowering the resistive powers of those attacked and so predispose to other and more dangerous diseases. Chicken-pox and Measles.—Seventy-seven (77) cases of the former, and 2r of the latter disease were reported. Bubonic Plague.—No cases were reported. The number of rats destroyed for which a reward was paid by the Municipality was 131,395. The chart accompanying this report (Table B i) shows graphically the actual number of deaths each week compared with the corresponding weeks of the previous year, and also the rainfall for the same periods. It will be seen from it that the second quarter was as usual the one in which the mortality was highest. In commenting on the same fact in the report for 1899, Dr. KERR described it as a period of comparative wet following a hot and dry one, and considered the rise of sub-soil water in a soil which had become filth sodden during the dry weather to have a large influence on the public health. Another point mentioned in the Appendix to the Report for 1901 was that, with the occurrence of regular rains towards the end of March and during April, Anopheles mosquitoes were noted as being more abundant than at any other time. Quarantine Camp. Report by Dr. G. D. Freer, Acting Colonial Surgeon :— 1. There were 316 admissions during the year for the following diseases:_ Small-pox 196, Chicken-pox 64, Measles 18, Acute Diarrhoea 13, Cholera 5, Choleraic