Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-04-06
INFANT MORTALITY
RATE IN DELAWARE
Board of Health Bulletin Shows
Deaths Between and 5 Years
Excessive.

That there is very serious and un-
aecessarv loss of life in Delaware among
children between the ages of / and 3
wears is shown by bulletin issued by
The State Beard of Health. In the year
1918 there were so many deaths OF chill
dren between those ages that the total
number of deaths of infants who had
not reached their second birthday totaled
993
The figures for 1919, which are now
available. show gratifying decrease, the
number being 662 under two years oil age,
but this is considered an excessively high
rate. The total number of deaths OF
infants under year during 1918 was fo9
and for 1919 the number was 562.
Delaware is fortunate in having several
organizations and many private indi-
viduals directly interested IN the conserva-
ton of child health. A realization on the
part of the public of the tire nendous IN
FAINT loss in Delaware will doubtless be
followed bv a demand that every known
method of saving infant lives be adopted.
1t must also be remembered that large
number of infants who do not die are
permanently handicapped in life by the
same conditions that cause the deaths OF
so many others. Mortality figures do not
tell the whole story of the results OF I'M
proper care of infants.
The figures for Wilmington Tor 1918
show total deaths of infants under |
wear of age to have been 440, and for
rural New Castle county 12l, making a
total for the county of sol. For 1919 the
figures were for Wilmington 290 and for
rural New Castle county 50, total OF
$40.
The number of deaths under one year
of age per ZOO births is usually known rs
the infant mortality rate but this rate
carnot be determined for Delaware owing
to the incomplete birth registration. In
rural New Castle County there were more
deaths than births reported during 1919
and during the first three months of 1919
there was only one registration district
outside of Wilmington that reported more
births than deaths. In Wilmington the
birth registration is fairly complete and
the infant mortality rate in that city has
averaged 125 for the last four years com
nared with 50 for the congested city of
New York. This means that out of every
thousand children who have been born in
ilmington in the last four years SO have
Ill who would have survived it they had
.cn born in the largest city of the coun-
", where every effort is made to conserve
chill life
All Of the records point strongly to the
fact that the work of the health centers
had marked effect in the reduction of
the infant death rates in 1919. This work
had not progressed sufficiently in 1918 to
have an effect on the mortality records
out the work was well organized throughout
the entire year of 1919 and, without going
into history of every case supervised by
the nurses, it is safe to assume that the
large decrease in the deaths from .diarrheal
diseases, together with the general low
infant death rate throughout the summer
as compared with that of the two or three
preceding years, was due very largely
to these educational health centers, to
,he pure milk dispensed by them and
% the follow-up work of the nurses.