Heilbrigðisskýrslur - 01.12.1933, Page 188

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Ihe number of schools adopting tliis practise is gradually increasing.
In many places the eod liver oil is administered in the very practi-
cal manner that the children pass in íile before a teacher or a nurse,
who empties the dose t'rom a cup into the children's niouth without
touching tlieir lips.
11. Maternity (see also tables XI XII). Tlie total number of births
in 1933 was: 2478 born alive and 52 stillborn, or 20,(5 °/oo ol' tlie
total number.
Deaths from accidents ol' childhirth and puerperal sepsis during'
the preceding years liave been as follows:
1924 1925 1920 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1932
Accklents of Childbirth........ 3 4 4 8 7 10 4 6 7 4
Puerperal Sepsis .............. 3 (i 1 3 3 1 5 3 1 3
Total Number of Deaths........ (i 10 3 11 10 11 9 9 8 7
Tlie death rate 1933 is 2,8 per 1000 children horn alive. The distri-
bution of accidents of childbirth is as follows: Puerperal hæmorrhage
2, ectopian gestation 1, otlier causes 1.
12. Care of infants. Infant mortality is on the wliole very low in
Iceland, this year 43,1 °/oo.
The care of infants may be said lo be fairly good and a great
majority of the cliildren are breast-fed. The midwives have made out
a report concerning 2385 infants born during the year (out of 2478
births). In 2310 cases the nutrition of the infants after hirth is re-
ported as follows (Reykjavik figures in brackets):
Breast-fed............... ............. 84,7 (92,4)
Breast- and bottle-fed................. 5,4 ( 4,2)
Bottle-fed only........................ 9,9 ( 3,4)
13. Sanitary officials and workers. (See table I). The total number
of trained medical men in Iceland was 130 in 1933. There are 49
medical districts, and as a rule they are all filled. The number of
midwives holding appointments is 202, while the number of districts
is 207. Trained nnrses do litlle service outside hospitals. Dentists are
very few. Trained dispensing chemists are onlv in tlie larger towns,
in villages and in the country the district medical officers liave a
small drug store.
14. Friendly Societies or sick-clubs. Since 1911 there are legal pro-
visions concerning Friendly Societies and they receive a trifling grant
from the Treasury. Hitherto tliis societies liave not been prosperous
and only 4,6 °/o of the population are members of Friendly Societies.
15. Hospitals, large and small, have in 1933 reached the number
of 36 in tlie whole country, with 1003 beds, or 8,9 beds per 1000
inhabitants. 29 of this number are general liospitals, with 532 beds,
or 4,7 °/oo. In tlie tuberculosis sanatoria tliere are 281 beds, or about
2,5°/oo. Of otlier special hospitals may be mentioned: 1 lunatic asyl-
um, 1 leprosarium and 1 small epidemic hospital in Reykjavik. In
the general hospilals the sick-days amounted to 1,6 days per head
in the whole country, wliile ín the sanatoria the figure was 0,91 per
liead. Added to tliis there is always a large number of tuberculosis
patients in the general hospitals (cf. also tables XV—XVI).