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
Paddington 1914
Report on the vital statistics and the work of the Public Health Department for the years 1914-18 (inclusive)
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11
TUBERCULOSIS.
Of the 2,614 new cases, 74 could not be assigned to any of the Wards of the Borough,
the Ward distribution of the remainder being as shown below.
Tuberculosis: All Forms. 1914-18. (Excluding 74 cases not allocated.)
| Ward. | Total Cases. | Percentage. (Borough = 100) | Ward. | Total Cases. | Percentage. (Borough = 100) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queen's Park | 296 | 11.7 | Church | 651 | 25.6 |
| Harrow Road | 504 | 19.8 | Lancaster Gate, West | 44 | 1.7 |
| Maida Vale | 354 | 13.9 | „ „ East | 59 | 2.3 |
| West bourne | 508 | 20. | Hyde Park | 124 | 4.9 |
The definite cases are divided into two main groups, viz., "pulmonary" (popularly
called "phthisis") and "other forms." The 2,614 new cases comprised 1,891 (72.3 per cent.)
pulmonary cases and 723 (27.7 per cent.) of other forms. A distribution by sex follows here.
Tuberculosis: All New Cases. 1914-18.
| Definite. | Suspect. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Males. | Females. | Males. | Females. | |
| All Forms | 1418 (54.2) | 1196 (45.8) | 298 (40.0) | 446 (60.0) |
| Pulmonary | 1031 (39.4) | 860 (32 9) 336 (12 9) | (not taken out) | |
| Other Forms | 387 (14.8) | |||
Note:—The figures in parentheses are percentages of the total definite (or suspect) cases.
The higher percentage observed among females in the suspect group is to be explained
by the fact that a large proportion of those cases are drawn from the examination of contacts.
Considerable difficulty is experienced in persuading working males to present themselves for
examination.
The 2,540 cases allocated to the Wards comprised 1,368 of males and 1,172 of females—
the corresponding percentages being 53.9 and 46.1 respectively. The highest proportion of
cases among males (554 per cent.) was observed in Queen's Park Ward, and among females
(57.6 per cent.) in Lancaster Gate, East, Ward. In the two Lancaster Gate Wards the
general rule of a higher proportion of cases among males was broken, the proportions being
equal (50 per cent. each) in the Western and 42.4 for males and 57.6 in the Eastern.
Table 9 contains a sex-age distribution of the 2,614 new definite and 744 suspect cases.
Taking the total at all ages for each sex as 100, the following are the proportions for five
broader age-groups.
Tuberculosis: 1914-18. Borough. (Total for each sex = 100).
| Males. | Females. | |||||||||
| Definite | 0- | 5- | 15- | 45- | 65- | 0- | 5- | 15- | 45- | 65- |
| Pulmonary | 4.2 | 16.4 | 55.3 | 20.6 | 3.5 | 3.2 | 16.4 | 62.9 | 14.8 | 2.7 |
| Other Forms | 30.8 | 48.3 | 17.8 | 2.9 | 0.2 | 28.0 | 42.6 | 25. | 4.2 | 0.3 |
| Suspect | 15.4 | 55.7 | 24.2 | 4.0 | 0.7 | 9.7 | 43.1 | 42.6 | 4.4 | 0.2 |
On analysing the certificates of the 2,614 new definite cases, in 28 (or 1 per cent.) the
site of the disease was either not or insufficiently described. In 33 cases (or 1*3 per cent.)
the disease was generalised—including 2 cases with three sites specifically named—and in
63 (or 2.2 per cent.) two sites were named. Analyses of the cases with the disease in one and
two sites are given in Tables 10 and 11.
A distribution of the new cases by occupation and sex is given in Table VI., Appendix.
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