Heilbrigðisskýrslur - 01.12.1954, Blaðsíða 223

— 221 —
1954
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 di-
strict medical officers of health and the
sanitary committees, in co-operation
with the local police authorities. The
chemical analysis work is done at the
public Chemical Analysis Institute in
Heykjavik; 76 samples of food (milk
and milk products excepted) were
submitted for analysis in 1954, out of
which numer 36 were found to be
not up to the standards (47.4 per
eent).
19. Hospitals, large and small, in
1954 numbered 48 in the whole coun-
try, with 1585 beds, or 10.2 beds per
1000 inhabitants, 43 of this number
beinggeneral hospitals, with 1029 beds
(6.6 per 1000). In the tuberculosis
sanatoria there are 257 beds (about
1.6 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 3.4 per head for the
whole population: in the general ho-
spitals the figure was 2.0 and in the
sanatoria 0.56. Added to this there is
always a considerable number of tu-
berculosis patients in the general ho-
spitals (cf. also tables XVII—XVIII).
Patients in general hospitals this
year may be classified as follows:
Epidemic Diseases ............ 2.99 p.c.
Venereal Diseases ............ 0.03 —
Tuberculosis ................. 1.10 —
Hydatid Disease......... 0.01 —
Cancer—Malignant Growths 3.12 —
Births, Miscarriages etc. . . 21.53 —
Violence ..................... 6.47 —
Other Diseases .............. 64.75 —
20. Immunization. In 1950 an Im-
munization Act was passed by the
Icelandic parliament and came into
force 1 January 1951. According to
the law immunization against small-
pox (vaccination) is still (since 1810)
obligatory and at the expence of the
Treasury, but further the Immuniza-
tion Act provides for and yields
public support to immunization
against diphtheria, enteric fever,
whooping cough, tuberculosis and
under special circumstances (travel-
ling abroad) against still other
diseases. Immunizations performed
during the year are shown in table
XIX.