More Deaths In Czechoslovakia

Grey River Argus, 11 October 1949, Page 8

More Deaths In Czechoslovakia

(By a Reuter Correspondent in Prague.) Coincidentally with the development of the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, latest figures show, the death rate has increased among adults and infants, and alcoholism has reached what arg described as alarming proportions. Compared with the war years, infant mortality dropped substantially in 1948, but last autumn saw the beginning of a new rise in the graphs of deaths among children during the first year after birth. In the first three months of this year, general mortality increased to 13.4 per thousand compared with 11.6 in 1948, while infant mortality jumped from 76 in 194 S to 93 per thousand—a figure putting Czechoslovakia well behind most Western, and especially the Anglo Saxon countries. One of the largest categories ot infant deaths was caused by pneumonia (23.7 per cent of deaths) while 2'0.8 pei’ cent of deaths were caused by .stomach disorders, such as colitis and gastro-enteritis.

Official figures also showed a general increase in cases of hospitalisation although this could have been a result of social security arrangements described by the Communists as more liberal than previously. While the number of hospitals increased, th e number of private sanatoria decreased from 65 in 1937 to 18 in 1948 as the nationalisation process got under way last year.

At the same time patients complained of bad standards. In some cases, they spoke of a deterioration of services, and in others, they said that there had been no improvement. The extension .of the State Service means that patients have no choice if they are disatisfied about treatment.

Non-communists report that it is more difficult "for them to get any special drugs and treatment they require. In one outstandingly bad case the parents of a patient who died of tuberculosis reported making special arrangements to import streptomycin. Just before the patient died, they found that a nurse had been using water instead of the drug, which she had been selling on the black market. Honouring the patient’s dying -wish, they did not take up the matter officially,although they knew that, the nurse had been caught in the act by a hospital doctor.

Figures concerning increasing algoholism have been issued in connection with a campaign to cut drinking. Total expenditure on alcohol in 1946 was thirteen thousand million crowns. This increased by three thousand million in 1947 and by two thousand million in 1948. Last year the expenditure on alcohol and tobacco was almost one fourth of the national income cd 140,000 million crowns. It was reported that there were 120,000 cases of severe alcoholism in the country.

As one means of combating alcoholism, the authorities have announced that production of alcohol is being increasingly diverted to industrial uses. More than 75 per cent of this year’s alcohol production is going to industry and by 1953 the percentage will be 81.