Heilbrigðisskýrslur - 01.12.1957, Side 180

1957
— 178 —
14. Accidents. The figure of deaths
by accidents (including suicide) is
0.48 per 1000 of the whole popula-
tion.
1953 1954 1955 1956 1957
Deaths by Suicide 12 19 23 20 14
Deaths by
other Violence 90 70 68 61 65
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 4784 infants
born during the year. Reports on the
nutrition of infants were submitted
in 4595 cases which accordingly were
grouped as follows (Reykjavík figures
in brac.kets):
Breast-fed ....... 89.5 p.c. (98.7 p.c.)
Breast-
and bottle-fed 7.6 — ( 0.6 — )
Bottle-fed only . 2.9 — ( 0.7 — )
16. Health Officials and Auxiliary
Personnel (cf. table I). The total num-
ber of licensed medical men in Iceland
was 219 in 1957. There are 55 medical
districts. The number of midwives
holding appointments is 150 while
the number of districts is about 200.
Trained nurses do little service out-
side hospitals and institutions. Den-
tists are very few (42 in the whole
country). Trained dispensing chemists
are only in the larger towns, in vil-
lages and in the country the district
medical officers have a small drug
store.
17. General Insurance. The National
Insurance Act of 1936 (amended
several times) covers besides disea-
ses: accident, disablement and old
age insurance, sickness insurance
being obligatory for the whole coun-
try since 1 October 1951.
At the end of the year 97977 per-
sons were registered insured under
the National Insurance Act, organi-
zed 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 nutrients. 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 Tnstitute in
Reykjavik.
19. Hospitals, large and small, in
1956 numbered 39 in the whole coun-
try, with 1705 beds, or 10.2 beds per
1000 inhabitants, 34 of this number
being general hospitals, with 1149 beds
(6.9 per 1000). In the tuberculosis
sanatoria there are 257 beds (about
1.5 per 1000). Of other special ho-
spitals may be mentioned: 1 lunatic
asylum and 1 leprosarium. The ho-
spitalization days in all hospitals
amounted to 3.5 per head for the
whole population: in the general ho-
spitals the figure was 2.4 and in the
sanatoria 0.34 (cf. also tables XVII
XVIII).
Patients in general hospitals this
year mav be classified as follows:
Epidemic Diseases ....... 1.35 p-c-
Venereal Diseases ............ 0.03
Tuberculosis ................. 0.68
Hydatid Disease .............. 0.03 —
Cancer—Malignant Growths 2.78
Births, Miscarriages etc. . . 22.74 -
Violence................. 6.26 —-
Other Diseases .............. 66.13 ■
20. Immunization. In 1950 an Im-
munization Act was passed by the
Icelandic parliament and came into