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
Harrow 1940
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow]
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48
purposes in the district in which he formerly resided if his house
is no longer and cannot be rendered fit for occupation ? To enable
the tuberculosis notification statistics more accurately to represent
the true state of affairs, instructions should be given that only
those forms A are to be accepted and included in the returns as
such as relate to persons who have not been notified elsewhere.
Such a departure from existing practice would have resulted in
the notification figures for any rapidly-growing district being
more in conformity with the actual facts because in such cases,
too, the transferring person in time figures or may figure as a
case notified for the first time in two separate areas.
12, or 15 per cent., of the deaths of patients suffering from
pulmonary disease, and 7, or 30 per cent, of the deaths of patients
suffering from non-pulmonary disease, occurred amongst patients
who had not been notified in this area as suffering from the disease.
| Pulmonary. | Non-Pulmonary. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male. | Female. | Male. | Female. | |
| No. on register Jan. 1st, 1940 | 331 | 280 | 65 | 80 |
| No. of New Cases added | 120 | 108 | 31 | 23 |
| No. of cases added—other than on Form A | - | - | - | - |
| No. of cases restored to register | 4 | 1 | — | 1 |
| No. of cases removed | 99 | 71 | 19 | 15 |
| No. on register Dec. 31st, 1940 | 356 | 318 | 77 | 89 |
The following table is a summary of the cases removed from the register, with the reason for their removal:—
| Pulmonary. | N on-Pulmonary. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female. | Male. | Female. | |
| Left the District | 44 | 32 | 7 | 8 |
| Died | 43 | 27 | 3 | 3 |
| Cured | 10 | 12 | 9 | 3 |
| Diagnosis not confirmed or withdrawn | - | 1 | 3 | _ |
Deaths.
77 persons (45 male and 32 female) died from pulmonary
tuberculosis during the year, and 16 (7 male and 9 female) from
non-pulmonary tuberculosis. Tuberculous disease, therefore,
accounted for 5.4 per cent. of the total deaths in the district.
36 per cent. of the deaths of those who succumbed to pulmonary
tuberculosis took place outside the district, mostly in institutions,
as against the corresponding figure of 70 per cent. of those suffering
from non-pulmonary tuberculosis.