London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Deptford 1960
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Deptford Borough]
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Tuberculosis Register
| Pulmonary | Non-Pulmonary | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M | F | Total | M | F | Total | |
| Cases notified for the first time | 55 | 25 | 80 | 3 | 4 | 7 |
| Posthumous notifications | – | 1 | 1 | – | – | – |
| New cases in Borough coming to knowledge otherwise than by primary notification | 30 | 13 | 43 | 1 | – | 1 |
I am indebted to the Chest Physician, Dr. J. P. V. Rigby, for the following report concerning the Chest Clinic at Harton Street, which is of great interest:— Cases on Chest Clinic Register at 31.12.60:—
| Definite | 1,066 |
| Observation | 37 |
| Number of new contacts examined | 334 |
| Total attendance at the Chest Clinic | 6,204 |
TUBERCULOSIS CARE COMMITTEE
| Interviews by Secretary | 689 |
| Cases assisted by Care Committee | 28 |
| Sums raised by Christmas Seal Sale, 1960 | £54 0s. Od. |
"1960 has been another year of intense activity at the Chest Clinic.
A wide variety of chest diseases besides tuberculosis are, of course, dealt
with. Special reference must be made to cancer of the lung in this
respect.
As far as tuberculosis is concerned, despite the removal of 185 cases
from the Respiratory Tuberculosis Register, the total numbers remain
high and unchanged owing to the addition of newly diagnosed cases and
inward transfers. Fifty-seven cases were regarded as recovered from
tuberculosis and 100 tuberculous families moved out of Deptford. To
take their place, many tuberculous persons moved into Deptford and 79
new cases of tuberculosis were discovered, 37 of which were sputum
positive cases on diagnosis.
It is interesting to note that the 79 new cases exceeds
Rochester, with a population of 199,486, by 2 cases,
Woolwich (population 145,470) by 8 cases,
and equals Dartford, (population 203,790).
Similar figures can be adduced to show that Deptford remains a
relatively heavily infected area with pulmonary tuberculosis, accentuated
by the presence of Carrington House in the Borough, with fairly large