London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hackney 1909

Report on the sanitary condition of the Hackney District for the year 1909

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but, as a matter of fact, the number of times a case was notified during the year varied from one to eleven, as follows:—

No. of Notification received for each case.1234567911Total.
No. of Cases1471124722183311354

Of this number, again, 12 cases were notified from Common
Lodging Houses in the Borough, and 36 cases were notified
from the Workhouse and Casual Wards.
Of the number of 354 cases of pulmonary consumption notified
under the Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations, 139 died
during the year. The total number of deaths from this disease in
the whole Borough during the year 1909 was 291. Thus 139
deaths, or 47.7 per cent. of the total deaths occurred amongst
cases notified under the P.H. (T.) Regulations. Can we, from
these figures, obtain any idea, even only approximately, of the
prevalence of this disease in the Borough? By applying these
figures to the whole of Hackney we should get a total of 740 cases
of pulmonary tuberculosis existing in the Borough; but I do
not think this figure represents the total number because
cases notified under the Regulations are certainly the most advanced
cases of the disease, and the annual death-rate amongst
these would be much higher. Making allowance for this
I am of opinion that the number of persons living in the Borough
of Hackney and actually suffering from Pulmonary Tuberculosis
is certainly 1,000, and probably many more, or, at least, one case
in every 240 of the population.
Enquiries were made into the circumstances, surroundings
-and habits of life of many of the cases notified during the year
as had not been removed to the infirmary or similar institution.
The object of these enquiries was to ascertain what effect these
e