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78 Report of the Medical Officer of Health.
The total number of visits made was 2,235 in cases of Pulmonary
Tuberculosis, 352 in Clapham, 205 in Putney, 630 in
Streatham, 404 in Tooting, and 644 in Wandsworth, and 613 in
cases of other forms of Tuberculosis, 98 in Clapham, 44 in Putney,
145 in Streatham, 113 in Tooting, and 213 in Wandsworth. In
addition to these visits by the Health Visitor, 3,158 visits were
made by the Dispensary Nurses, these visits being made by the
instruction of the Tuberculosis Officer to cases under his care at the
Dispensary.
During the year 20 sputum flasks have been supplied, and
in 12 of the cases visited the patients already had one.
During the year disinfection was carried out at 355 premises
either after the death or removal of the patient. 63 of the premises
disinfected were in Clapham, 23 in Putney, 109 in Streatham, 44
in Tooting, and 116 in Wandsworth.
Many eases of tuberculosis are infectious to those who live
in intimate and continuous contact with them, though the risk of
infection is very small to those occasionally in contact with the
disease. To workers who have to visit the homes of the tubercular
and to interview the patients themselves, the risk is negligible,
but to those who live in the same house, and frequently in the same
room, by day and night, it becomes a factor to be reckoned with.
Notification of the disease was introduced so that measures
could be taken to limit the spread of infection, and also to enable
advice to be given to the patient with regard to his treatment, and
to improving, as far as he can, the conditions under which he lives.
For both these reasons it is essential that the case be notified when
the disease is in its early stages. Unfortunately, the reverse frequently
occurs, and many unnotified cases are seen at the Dispensaries
for the first time when the disease is well established, and
in some cases advanced. The following three facts seem to have
some bearing on this state of affairs
(a) the undoubted difficulty which exists in diagnosing
the disease in an early stage, patients being treated for