Community health survey of Oukasie, 1987

A series of surveys were conducted at the request of the community of Oukasie to determine certain public health information in the township, a peri-urban black community. This article describes two of these surveys. The first, a census and partial demographic survey, showed that the total black population was around 6,300 with a mean household occupancy of 4.1. Some of the estimated vital statistics calculated were an infant mortality rate of 36.6/1,000, a crude birth rate of 28.0/1,000, a crude death rate of 6.5/1,000, and a general fertility rate of 99.3/1,000. The second survey into the nutritional and immunisation status of children aged under 5 years showed that 20% of children were underweight and nearly half were incompletely immunised at 1 year of age. These studies, involving local community and student volunteers, were rapidly and inexpensively done and provide basic public health information.