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
Fulham 1913
Annual report of the Medical Officer of Health for the year 1913
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46
The diagnostic tables shew that 410 out of a total of
1,162 new patients (or 35.2 per cent.) were suffering from
tuberculosis.
Out of the total number of children of school age,
viz., 570, 179 were tuberculous.
The Source of Infection.
Although in a certain percentage of cases of tuberculosis
of bones and joints and glands the source of
infection is the milk of tuberculous cows, and in a few
instances the meat of tuberculous animals, in the vast
majority of cases of pulmonary tuberculosis the infection
is derived from another tuberculous patient (from
the sputum, and in a few cases from human milk).
It is generally believed that infection occurs in childhood
in many cases, and this is borne out by our
figures ; in the cases in which a source of infection was
elicited this occurred in childhood in 61 instances.
TABLE V (A).
| Pulmonary Tuberculosis. | Other forms of Tuberculosis. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Exposure to infection from another member of the family. | Probably infected in some other way. | No history of exposure to infection. | Exposure to infection from another member of the same family. | Probably infected in some other way. | No history of exposure to infection. |
| 224 | 70 | 86 | 70 | 4 | 12 |