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Council has already provided a large amount of sanatorium accommodation
for the patients in the County, and the provision of further
accommodation is in hand.
An excellent start in the campaign against Tuberculosis has
been made by the County, so far as I can judge from the arrangements
in our own district, and much is to be hoped from the work
now initiated.
The part of the Borough Council and its officers in the work
of combating Tuberculosis is as follows:—The Medical Officer of
Health first receives the notifications of the cases. Enquiries are
then made so as to ascertain as far as possible the source of infection
and to take such steps as are necessary or desirable to prevent
the spread of infection and for removing conditions favourable to
infection—the detection and prevention of overcrowding and the
removal of insanitary conditions which render houses unfit for
human habitation and favour the spread of tuberculosis.
Visits were paid to the houses of 187 patients who had been
notified as suffering from Tuberculosis. Those suffering from
Phthisis numbered 136 of the 176 cases notified, and of the 70
cases of non-pulmonary Phthisis notified 51 were visited. In the
remaining cases the doctor in attendance considered that a visit
from the Local Authority was undesirable, or in some cases the
patient had died, or removed, shortly after notification. In these
latter cases visits were made only for the purpose of disinfection.
Altogether 134 premises were disinfected in connection with Tuberculosis.
History of Infection.—In about half the cases of Pulmonary
Tuberculosis (67 out of 136) it was possible to obtain a history of
more or less intimate association with a consumptive, at a time
previous to the onset of illness, which makes it possible that this
may have been the source of infection.