PUBLIC HEALTH
149
The maternal mortality rate in 1957 was 1.06 per 1,000 births compared with 0.90 in 1956 and 1.16 in 1955.
The infant mortality rate was 55.6 per 1,000 live births compared with 60.9 in 1956. The steady decline in this rate since the war has been most satisfactory. The neo-natal mortality rate was 23.8 per 1,000 live births.
The peri-natal mortality (i.e. the number of still-births plus the number of infants dying in the first week of life) was 2,568 and the peri-natal mortality rate was 25.9 per 1,000 births (live and still). This rate is now considered a more useful indication of infant loss than the neo-natal mortality rate since the causes contributing to both still- births and deaths in the first few days of life are the same, i.e. prematurity, birth injury, and congenital malformations. Deaths after the first week are likely to be due to those causes of infant deaths operating for the rest of the first year of life.
COMMUNICABLE DISEASES
The Table at Appendix XIV gives the numbers of cases and deaths from notifiable diseases reported in the Colony in 1957 with the figures for 1956 for comparison. Some of these diseases require detailed comment :
Bacillary Dysentery. A total of 560 notifications was re- corded during the year as compared with 650 in the previous year. The disease shows a seasonal rise in the hotter weather, being highest in the second and third quarters of the year. The number of deaths, though higher than last year, was lower than any of the other years on record.
The incidence returns of children in the o- 4 age group remained high, being about 40% of the total.
During the course of routine investigation, 100 carriers were discovered amongst contacts of cases and rendered free from infection.
Enteric Fever. The sharp incidence peak which normally occurs during the summer months was again absent this