Heilbrigðisskýrslur - 01.12.1963, Blaðsíða 224

1963
— 222 —
1959 1960 1961 1962 1963
Deaths by Suicide 11 13 19 17 15
Deaths by other Violence 121 63 86 86 112
Classification of deaths by accidents is shown on pp. 75—77.
15. Care of Infants may be said to be fairly good, the great majority
of the children being breast-fed at least for the first weeks. The mid-
wives have made out a report (table XIII) concerning 4758 infants
born during the year. Reports on the nutrition of infants were submit-
ted in 4650 cases which accordingly were grouped as follows (Reykja-
vík figures in brackets):
Breast-fed ........................... 78.84 p.c. (80.42 p.c.)
Breast- and bottle-fed ............... 15.87 — (15.21 —)
Bottle-fed only ........................ 5.29 —• ( 4.36 —)
16. Health Officials and Auxiliary Personnel (cf. table I). The total
number of licensed medical men in Iceland was 338 at the end of the year
1963. There are 57 medical districts. The number of midwives holding
appointments is 116, while the number of districts is about 200. Trained
nurses do little service outside hospitals and institutions. Dentists are
too few (58 working 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 of 1936 (amen-
ded several times) covers besides diseases: accident, disablement and
old age insurance, sickness insurance being obligatory for the whole
country since 1 October 1951. At the end of the year 111793 persons
were registered insured under the National Insurance Act, organized
in 223 sicknessbenefit societies, children under 16 years being insured
with their parents or foster-parents.
18. Food and Nutrition. Public inspection of food has taken place in
this country since 1936, when the Food Adulteration Act came into
force. This Act provides for comprehensive control of all articles of
food and other nutrients. This inspection is in the hands of the district
medical officers of health and the sanitary committees, in co-opera-
tion with the local police authorities. The chemical analysis work is
done at the public Chemical Analysis Institute in Reykjavík.
19. Hos-pitals, large and small, in 1963 numbered 39 in the whole
country with 1902 beds, or 10.2 beds per 1000 inhabitants, 29 of this
number being general hospitals, with 1179 beds (6.3 per 1000). In the
tuberculosis sanatoria there are 70 beds (about 0.4 per 1000). Of other