Report of the Health Officer, Corporation of Madras Health Department.

  • Madras (India). Health Department.
Date:
[1938]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Health Officer, Corporation of Madras Health Department. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/178 (page 4)
    public makes a striking contrast to the conditions under which a public health authority has to work in a provincial metropolitan city. Arrange¬ ments for inter-communication are either primitive or nil. Recently, on hearing that there w^re cases of small-pox in Sembium, I made an inspec¬ tion and detected over 18 severe cases of small-pox which were removed to the infectious diseases hospital at Tondiarpet. How difficult it is to keep an out-break under control when such large number of cases are allowed to be kept on the outskirts of the city—on the other side of the road within a distance of 100 yards—without any sort of intimation, official or private. Under the existing conditions the only remedy is to incorporate Sembium and the other villages on the outskirts of the city within city limits. This has been urged more than once before. .Statement on page 14 shows the satisfactory decline in malaria mortality during the last 10 years. The year under report has recorded the lowest mortality viz., 50 deaths from malaria. The average number of deaths from malaria during the quinquennium, 1934-1938, was 120 as against 309 for the preceding quinquennium, 1929-1933. This is an excellent achieve¬ ment for the malaria section. Statements on pages 35 and 36 show clearly the value of the work done by the home-visiting staff newly sanctioned by the Council. Mosquito nuisance has greatly diminished as evidenced by the fact that the mosquito home-index was brought down from 9*5 in 1937 to 1*7. 92,983 unnecessary articles were removed from dwelling houses which would have otherwise acted as breeding places for mosquitoes. There is an appreciable reduction in the total number of malaria cases treated in the dispensaries and the spleenic rates of school children. Slight increase is noticed in the incidence of typhoid and tuber¬ culosis. i Cerebrospinal fever;—In the 2nd, week of October, 1938, an explosive out-break of cerebro-spinal fever occurred in the Egmore division resulting in 41 attacks and 22 deaths. The first three cases occurred on the 7th. of October and preventive measures were started immediately. The infection was confined mostly to one community with the exception of 4 cases of Brahmin boys. The spread of the epidemic was by direct contact. The out-break occurred just before the advent of north¬ east monsoon and was chiefly confined to houses tenanted by a number of families. All cases including cases of fever were removed as speedily as possible to the isolation hospitals. An ambulance was kept ready in the infected area. All the infected houses were thoroughly disinfected and lime-washed. In many cases tiles were removed for sun-disinfection and ventilation. The families migrated during the epidemic to other parts of the city and were kept under observation. This led to the early detection of one or two cases which were also immediately isolated in the hospital. Antiseptic gargles were freely distributed to the people in the affected locality in the mornings and evenings. Hand bills were distributed in Tamil and English informing them of the nature of the epidemic and instructing them in the methods of prevention and control. The schools in the locality and the neighbourhood were closed. A few cases suspected to be carriers were kept in the isolation hospitals until they were declared negative. The staff worked vigorously and the public co-operated with them in their arduous task. The Public Health Minis¬ ter visited the locality.