Heilbrigðisskýrslur - 01.12.1940, Page 215

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17. Hospitals, large and small, had in 11)40 reached the number of
50 in the whole country, with 1223 beds, or 10,2 beds per 1000 in-
habitants, 43 of this number being general liospitals, with 725 beds, or
6,0(%. In the tuberculosis sanatoria there are 281 beds, or about 2,3%c-
Of other special hospitals may he mentioned: 1 lunatic asylum, 1
leprosarium (occupied by the British forces and the lepers moved to a
small tuberculósis sanatory, the numbers of beds in sanatoria thereby
reduced to 257 or 2,\%c) and 1 small epidemic hospital in Reykjavík.
The sick-days in hospitals amounted to 3,3 per head in the whole
country while in the general hospitals llie figure was 1,8, and in the
sanatoria 0,82. Added to tliis there is always a large number of tuber-
culosis patients in the general hospitals (cf. also tables XVII—XVIII).
Patients in general hospitals this vear may be classified as follows:
Epidemic diseases ...................... 2,9 %
Venereal diseases ...................... 1,2 —
Tuberculosis .......................... 6,9 —
Hydatid disease ........................ 0,2 —
Cancer and Malignant tumors ............ 3,6 —
Births, miscarriages etc............... 12,4 —
Violence ............................... 6,5 —
öther diseases......................... 66,3 —
18. Vaccination is compulsory in Iceland. 1510 children were vac-
einated for the first time, 66% with full reaction, and 2119 revac-
cinated, 66% with full reaction (cf. table XX).
19. The Occupation. No ineident has impaired a friendly co-opera-
tion between the medical authorities in this country and Ihe medical
officers of the British forces. The presence of the large foreign garrison
did not as yet have any marked directly injurious effects to the health
ot the country. A considerahle rise in syphilis cases was due to general
war conditions (more frequent infections of Icelandic sailors in for-
cign ports and hy foreign sailors in Icelandic ports) rather than eases
being traced to soldiers of the garrison. Epidemic cerebrospinal men-
ingitis occurred this year for the first time in this country on a con-
siderable scale, and there can hardly be any doubt that this must be ex-
plained in connection with the presence of the foreign army, the
disease being a wellknown barracks disease. II should be mentioned,
however, that the first three cases were reported before the occupa-
tion. Indirectly the occupation has certainly diminished the health
seeurity of the people (housing difficulties, long and irregular work-
ing hours and generally bad working conditions, increased risk of
accidents for labourers and on the roads etc.), and besides it has
brought in its train various forms of immorality among men and
women alike — not least among the very young girls — which, as well-
known, generally follows garrisons hul is probably more seriously felt
liere than any other place because the people are so very few in
numher that it may be said that the entire country is a single garrison
and the nation in whole concerned.