The Midland Journal

OUR HEALTH RECORD

Maryland's health record for the second quarter of 1944 is good, according to statistics just released by Dr. R. H. Riley, Director of the State Department of Health. The figures show that on the whole the residents of this State were healthier during April, May and June of this year than during the corresponding period of 1943.

The general death rate declined by 4 per cent. There was a small decrease in the death rate for white residents and a decrease of 11 per cent among the colored.

The records show 403 fewer deaths from all causes during the second quarter than in the corresponding quarter of 1943. This lower mortality is reflected in the smaller number of deaths from specific causes. In the group of "degenerative diseases" (i.e., heart disease, cancer, cerebral hemorrhage, nephritis and diabetes) there was a decrease of 276—from 3,635 to 3,359 deaths. Deaths from syphilis dropped from 86 to 72, cerebrospinal meningitis from 30 to 18, whooping cough from 16 to 4, and appendicitis from 21 to 17. Very gratifying decreases are recorded for deaths due to pregnancy, which declined from 28 to 12, and for deaths from all types of accidents, which dropped from 394 to 365. Tuberculosis deaths, however, remained practically stationary, and there were increases in mortality from diphtheria, measles and motor vehicle accidents.

The birth rate decreased from 20.9 per 1,000 population in the second quarter of 1943 to 19.5 in 1944, a drop of 7 per cent. The white rate dropped 8 per cent, from 20.5 to 18.9, but the colored rate declined only 3 per cent, from 23.3 to 22.6. These lowered birth rates are the continuation of a trend noted in the first quarter of this year. The decrease in birth rate per 1,000 population was accompanied by a 54 per cent drop in the maternal death rate. Unfortunately, the infant mortality rate showed an increase of 8 per cent over that recorded for the corresponding quarter of 1943. This year the rate was 44.6 per 1,000 live births, as compared with only 41.2 during the similar period of 1943.

Communicable diseases were less prevalent during the second quarter of 1944 than they were last year. There were 17,184 known cases of reportable diseases in Maryland in the period under discussion, as compared with 20,241 cases last year. Considerable decreases are recorded for epidemic meningitis, pulmonary tuberculosis, syphilis, gonorrhea, whooping cough and German measles. On the other hand, increases occurred in the incidence of diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, undulant fever and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.