Report of the Medical Officer of Health, Cairo City.

  • Egypt. Cairo City Health Inspectorate.
Date:
[1929]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Medical Officer of Health, Cairo City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Department of Public Health. Report of the Principal Medical Officer of Health Cairo City, for the Year 1929. (A) VITAL STATISTICS. The estimated mid-year population of Cairo in 1929 was 1,107,900. The district distribution is shown in Table I. Births.—During 1929 : 48,013 births occurred in Cairo. The annual birth-rate was, therefore, 43-9 per thousand of population as compared with 41*7 in the previous year. District births and birth-rates are shown in Table I. Still-births.—1,143 children were born dead ; this gives a rate of 24 still-births per thousand births. Deaths.—During 1929 a total of 30,263 deaths occurred in Cairo. 734 of these, however, were deaths of non-residents leaving 29,529 for Cairo proper. This gives an annual death-rate of 26'6 per thousand of population as compared with a rate of 32'4 in 1928 and 33 3 in 1927. District deaths and death-rates are shown in Table I. Infantile Mortality.—10,256 children under one year of age died during 1929 giving an infantile mortality of 211 per thousand births for the whole city as compared with 253 during 1928 and 221 in 1927. In addition there were 14 deaths of infants coming from outside Cairo who died in various institutions. Chart I shows the mean infantile death-rates per week. Diseases causing Infantile Mortality.—Diarrhoea and Enteritis are the most important diseases affecting children. They were responsible this year for 5,394 deaths amongst infants, or 52'6per hundred deaths of the infantile mortality. Chest diseases come next with 1,545 deaths, or a rate of 15'1 per hundred deaths. Marasmus and general debility caused 448 deaths, a rate of 4-4 per cent. 198 deaths only were due to infectious diseases, a rate of 1*9 per cent. Chart II shows the weekly deaths of children from enteritis together with the average weekly temperature. Death Inquiries.—The total number of uncertified deaths during the year 1923 which required to be investigated was 15,063, or 51 per cent to the total of i airo deaths. District Medical Officers investigated 79'5% of the uncertified deaths, Dis'rict Mowalidas investigated 15*9%. The remaining deaths were in the villages attached to Cairo where sanitary barbers and dayas gave permits of burial. Infectious Diseases.—The total number of cases of Infe tious Diseases during 19-9 was 8,307 which include 393 cases coming from outside Cairo, so that the total for Cairo proper was 7,914 as compared with 13,224 in 1928. Table II shows the incidence and death rates of the most prevalent infectious diseases in Cairo districts during 1929.