CO129-481 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1923 [8-12] — Page 107

6161

1920

1761

CHOLERA,

Only one case of the disease was notified during the year. It could not be established that the case was imported.

The following table shows the occurrence of this disease for the last ten years.

CHOLERA FROM 1913 TO 1922.

GIGI

FIGT

916T

1917

1918

Month

1913

January

February

March

April

SVTX

June

July

16

September October.... November

December

- x

Total.

LIG

17

1922

10

1

68

i

Hi

6

1

69

9

:

1110

6

111

19

Chinese cases

SOME COMPARISONS BETWEEN THE YEAR 1921 AND 1922.

For the purpose of calculating the weekly and monthly death rates throughout the year the population of the Colony (ex- cluding the New Territories which are without the jurisdiction of the Board) for 1921 was estimated to be 585,880 and for 1922 578,200.

This decrease for 1922 is due to a census having been taken in 1921. The census returns were much lower than was antic- ipated and were admitted to be probably lower than they should have been by the census officer.

The estimated population for 1922 was based on these census

returns,

The total number of deaths registered in 1921 was 11,880 and in 1922 14.569.

The general death rate for 1921 was 20-27 and for 1922 25-16 giving a difference of 489 per 1,000.

This difference in the death rates suggests at first that the health of the Colony was much worse than in the previous year.

The excess of deaths in 1922 over those in 1921 was 2,689.

The deaths from Notifiable Diseases in 1921 were 484 and in 1922 1.416 (1,071 from Plague alone) giving an excess for 1922 of 932 deaths.

By subtracting this last figure from the total excess deaths it is seen that there were in 1922 1,757 excess deaths in 1922 to be accounted for by other causes than the Notifiable Infectious Diseases.

The deaths from Respiratory Disease, Tuberculosis. Malaria ami Beri-beri, for the two years were as follows :-

:-

Respiratory Diseases (excluding Tubercular

Diseuse!

Tuberculosis

Malaria

Beri-beri

1921 1922

3,832 4.863

1,894 2,096

332 454

526

820

6,584 8,242

With regard to the increase in deaths from Malaria: this may perhaps be explained in part by the rapid growth of urban areas and the consequent extension of the population into districts in which permanent anti-malarial measures have not kept pace with the frowth of the population.

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