Annual medical and sanitary report / Trengganu.

  • Terengganu. Medical Department.
Date:
[1935]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual medical and sanitary report / Trengganu. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/38 (page 6)
    There is always a certain amount of malaria on the mines and estates and there was a great increase in the number of cases of malaria at the Nippon Mining Co., Dungun especially during the last half of the year (v.i.). The question as to whether there has been an increase in malaria during the year is a difficult one. From a consideration of the causes of death, it would seem that there was no significant increase. A comparison with 1934 shows the following:— 1934 1935 Deaths stated to be due to malaria 92 194 Deaths due to fever unspecified 2,621 2,363 Deaths due to convulsions 1,031 996 As has been pointed out, no great weight can be laid on these figures while the increase in the number of figures stated to be due to malaria is probably due to the efforts of the Medical Department to secure accurate registration. School medical inspections indicate that the spleen rate has declined from 3.12% to 2.38% but this merely shows that there has been no increase on the coast as nearly all the schools are there. The percentage of out-patients treated (new cases) rose from 13.57 to 14.22. The rise is probably of no significance as the percentage of out-patients treated during visits to the out-lying villages rose from 43,998 to 60,061 and in consequence more visits were paid to the inland villages where the incidence of malaria is higher. On the other hand, the percentage of in-patients treated for malaria as the principal disease rose from 9.2% to 25.93%. The details are as follows:— 1934 1935 Cases Deaths Cases Deaths Number of patients admitted for malaria with parasites seen by the microscope in the blood 32 2 340 2 Number of patients admitted judged to be suffer¬ ing from malaria though no parasites were discovered in the blood 135 2 274 3 Total 157 4 614 5 A scrutiny of these 614 cases revealed that no fever than 303 of them claimed to be employed by the Nippon Mining Co., Dungun and in 203 of these cases parasites were demon¬ strated in the blood by the microscope. In the health returns of the company, only 72 cases of malaria were reported with 13 deaths most of which occurred in the latter half of the year. There has not been such a high proportion of cases admitted suffering from malaria since the period 1930—1931 when the percentages admitted were 30.86 and 27.56 respectively. The percentage of Malays admitted suffering from malaria rose from 5.61 in 1934 to 9.87. From a consideration of these facts, it has to be admitted that there 'has been a slight increase in the incidence of malaria probably due to the increased activity on the mines and estates as was the case in the period 1930—1931. In all, 16,485 (12,965) cases were treated. Dengue.—No case of this disease was reported. Filaria.—One patient was admitted into hospital suffering from this disease.