Heilbrigðisskýrslur - 01.12.1952, Page 211

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1952
14. Accidents. The figure of deaths
by accidents (including suicide) is
0.60 per 1000 of the whole popula-
tion.
1948 1949 1950 1951 1952
Deaths by Suicide 11 16 17 18 17
Deaths by
other Violence 81 59 92 92 71
The distribution of deaths by acci-
dents is shown on pp. 69—70.
15. Care of Infants may be said to
be fairly good, the great majority of
the children being breast-fed. The
midwives have made out a report
(table XIII) concerning 4142 infants
born during the year. Reports on the
nutrition of infants were submitted
in 4014 caces which accordingly were
grouped as follows (Reykjavik figures
in brackets):
Breast-fed ....... 94.3 p.c. (99.4 p.c.)
Breast-
and bottle-fed 3.0 — (0.1 — )
Bottle-fed only . 2.7 — ( 0.5 — )
16. Health Officials and Auxiliary
Personel (cf. table I). The total number
of licensed medical men in Iceland
was 188 in 1952. There are 51 medical
districts. The number of midwives
holding appointments is 148 while
the number of districts is about 200.
Trained nurses do little service out-
side hospitals. Dentists are very few
(35 in the whole country). Trained
dispensing chemists are only in the
larger towns, in villages and in the
country the district medical officers
have a small drug store.
17. General Insurance. The National
Insurance Act from 1936 (amended
several times) covers besides disea-
ses: accident, disablement and old
age insurance. Until this year only in
all urban districts insurance against
loss of health was obligatory, in rural
after a general vote had been taken
and a majority for it obtained, adopt
compulsory insurance. By an amend-
ment passed by the Icelandic parlia-
ment of the National Insurance Act
last year sickness insurance was made
obligatory for the whole population
from 1 October 1951.
At the end of the year 90632 per-
sons were registered insured under
the National Insurance Act, organi-
sed in 225 sickness-benefit societies,
children under 16 years being insured
with their parents or foster-parents.
18. Food and Nutrition. Public in-
spection of food has taken place in
this country since 1936, when the
Food Adulteration Act came into
force. This Act provides for com-
prehensive control of all articles of
food and other nutritients. This in-
spection is in the hands of the dist-
rict medical officers of health and the
sanitary commmittees, in co-operation
with the local police authorities. The
chemical analysis work is done at tlie
public Chemical Analysis Institute in
Reykjavík; 73 samples of food (milk
and milk products excepted) were
submitted for analysis in 1952, out of
which number 15 were found to be
not up to the standards (20.3 per-
cent).
19. Hospitals, large and small, in
1952 numbered 47 in the whole coun-
try, with 1419 beds, or 9.5 beds per
1000 inhabitants, 41 of this number
being general hospitals, with 838 beds
(5.6 per 1000). In the tuberculosis
sanatoria there are 257 beds (about
1.7 per 1000). Of other special ho-
spitals may be mentioned: 1 lunatic
asylum, 1 leprosarium and 1 small
epidemic hospital in Reykjavík. The
hospitalization days in all hospitals
amounted to 3.2 per head for the
whole population: in the general ho-
spitals the figure was 1.8 and in the
sanatoria 0.67. Added to this there is
always a considerable number of tu-
berculosis patients in the general ho-
spitals (cf. also tables XVII—XVIII).
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