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153 1906
NOTIFICATION OF PHTHISIS.
Phthisis has been voluntarily notified by medical practitioners to the
Medical Officer of Health since January ist, 1905, since which time 145 cases
have been reported by them, of which 64 were notified during 1906, 30
occurring in their private practice and 34 in their public practice.
The Relieving Officers also gave information concerning 62 cases, so that
altogether 126 cases came to the knowledge of the Public Health Department.
A call was made in each instance at the patient's residence and
printed instructions as to the precautions it was advisable to adopt were left
with him or with his guardians.
In addition to these cases 411 deaths came to light through the death
registers, and in every instance, where the deceased had died at home, the
Medical Officer of Health offered the occupiers of the premises to disinfect
the patient's rooms and bedding.
As a result of the information gleaned through the notifications and the
death registers, as many as 369 rooms in 258 separate premises were
disinfected, while the bedding, &c., were also disinfected. This action on the
part of the sanitary authority must have a good result, for undoubtedly the
thorough disinfection of premises and rooms wherein patients suffering from
consumption of the lungs have lived must, by destroying the bacilli which are
the active agents of its spread, considerably check the spread and propagation
of the disease. The offer of disinfection is, as a rule, gladly received and
highly appreciated by the relatives and friends. Indeed, while the Medical
Officer of Health was writing these lines the following letter, received from
a man who had lost his wife, was placed in his hands :—
Baking Street,
8th May, 1907.
Dear Sir,
Yours of the 6th inst. to hand. I am only too pleased to help you
in stamping out this awful disease, but as the funeral does not take place
until Saturday I must ask you to leave it until Monday. Kindly let me