Report / Board of Health, City of Edmonton, Alberta.

  • Edmonton (Alta.). Board of Health.
Date:
[1934]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report / Board of Health, City of Edmonton, Alberta. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/28 (page 3)
    e/lnnual Report of Medical Officer of Health Local Board of Health, City of Edmonton. Gentlemen: As required by the regulations under the Public Health Act of Alberta, 1922, I am presenting herewith the annual report on health conditions in the City of Edmonton and a report of the activities of the Board’s employees for the year 1934. COMMUNICABLE DISEASES The chart on communicable diseases has been changed in order to show the cases and deaths in the preceding five years. From that you will see that there have been fewer cases of the communicable diseases and fewer deaths than in any year in the last five. Other charts have been prepared, but are omitted from the printed report for economy’s sake. The distribu¬ tion, considered from the standpoint of age, sex and season, provides inter¬ esting information, some of which will be commented upon. The venereal disease cases recorded in this report are mainly those which are in attendance at the Provincial Clinic and the only other places reporting to us are the hospitals. I would like to remind the physicians that under the Public Health Regulations they are required to give notice of these cases, but they do not have to give us the names of the patients. I would also like to point out to them that we can be of considerable assistance to them in the treatment of their patients if they care to avail themselves of our service, the purpose of which is to encourage regularity of attendance. Ten of the patients were less than fourteen years old. This may indicate the presence of untreated patients in the home. Our method of tuberculosis control has been greatly assisted by the legislation passed by the Provincial Board of Health. This enables us to hospitalize cases where their condition is such that they are a menace to the family or the public generally. It also gives us the right to require that contacts shall be examined. Up to the present there have been few occasions where it has been necessary to invoke this legislation, but its presence places us in a strong position. Of the 49 cases of tuberculosis, 13 were under the age of 14 years, 10 of these again were pulmonary tuberculosis. I think that we can attribute the finding of these children to the tuberculosis service which is conducted by the Kinsmen Club; in its absence, it is quite likely that these children would have continued undetected and untreated and some of them would have developed into advanced cases to be discovered in early adult life. Of the remaining numbers, 25 were 25 years or older, all of them in age groups in which they should be at full capacity to provide the means of livelihood. When one considers that this disease is not the type which is limited to a few days or even a few weeks, but goes on for months and years, its full seriousness to these persons and their families will be brought home to one. Further analyses of different phases of the communicable diseases are available in our files. The Isolation Hospital, in spite of the fact that they handled 364 patients during the year, had no cross-infections whatever, which speaks will of the high degree of efficiency maintained. MATERNAL AND CHILD HYGIENE AND NURSING SERVICE The number of deaths are the same as for the preceding year but a significant fact pointed out in the report is that there were no maternal deaths associated with living births. The infant mortality still remains at a comparatively low level, there being 12 fewer deaths under one year than in 1933. Again the majority of these, 44%, were due to causes which are considered to be preventable.