Health in British India during 1937

Abstract

THE state of the public health in British India and some of the Indian States during 1937 is dealt with in the recently issued “Annual Report of the Public Health Commissioner with the Government of India for 1937” (Government of India Press, New Delhi, 1939. Price Rs. 3 or 5s.). the mid-year estimated population for British India was 272,406,436, an in-crease of more than tliree and a quarter millions compared with the previous year. the birth-rate was 34·5, and the death-rate 22·4 per mille, each a slight decrease over the previous year, and the infantile death-rate per 1,000 live births was 161·7. Plague mortality, with 28,169 deaths, was appreciably higher than in 1936, but deaths due to cholera and smallpox, 99,054 and 54,810 respectively, showed large decreases, so that there was a total reduction of more than 90,000 deaths from these epidemic diseases. With regard to plague, it is romarked that within recent years the fatality-rate has considerably decreased, and that the disease is often so mild that patients remain at work during the attack. Malaria and respiratory diseases cause the largest mortality; roughly about 1,000 people die from malaria every day throughout the year. Dysentery and diarrhœa caused 267,479 deaths, or more than two and a half times the number of cholera deaths. With regard to vaccination and its protective power against smallpox, figures show that the greater the number of vaccination ‘marks’ the smaller is the case mortality rate, and that mortality is much the highest among those having ‘no marks’, which may be presumed to mean absence of vaccination. the volume also contains much information on maternity and child welfare and on the research work of various colleges and institutes.