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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18
TUBERCULOSIS.
tuberculosis in infant life be accepted, then the supposed onset of an attack of pulmonary
tuberculosis marks but the lighting-up of an old infection—or the re-infection of an individual
imperfectly protected by earlier infection(s)—and the durations on which the above tabulation
is founded must be regarded as understatements of the facts. In any case the data
given above lend support to the view that an attack of pulmonary tuberculosis ought not to
be regarded as an immediate death warrant, and they can be regarded as rebutting the
somewhat pessimistic conclusions based on sanatorium work.
TABLE 12. Tuberculosis: Deaths. 1914-18.
| Ward. | 0- | 1- | 5- | 15- | 25- | 65- | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | |
| Queen's Park | o | 1 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 58 | 23 | 4 | 3 | |||
| Harrow Road | o | 1 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 17 | 85 | 52 | 3 | 4 | ||
| Maida Vale | 1 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 47 | 32 | 3 | 5 | ||||
| Westbourne | 2 | 2 | G | 3 | 10 | 15 | 06 | 39 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Church | 3 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 20 | 81 | 60 | 5 | 4 | |
| Lancaster Gate, West | 1 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 2 | ||||||
| „ „ East | 4 | 6 | 1 | |||||||||
| Hyde Park | 2 | 4 | 21 | 16 | i | |||||||
| Queen's Park | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
| Harrow Road | 1 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| Maida Vale | o | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| Westbourne | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Church | 5 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 1 | ||||||
| Lancaster Gate, West | 1 | 2 | 1 | i | ||||||||
| „ „ East | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||||
| Hyde Park | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| Queen's Park | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ... | ||
| Harrow Road | 2 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 3 | ... | |
| Maida Vale | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |||
| Westbourne | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ||
| Church | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| Lancaster Gate, West | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||
| „ „ East | i | 1 | ||||||||||
| Hyde Park | ' i | "i | i | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
Deaths not due to Tuberculosis.—The 820 deaths assigned to pulmonary tuberculosis do
not represent the complete mortality among the tuberculous. During the five years 95
persons on the Department's Registers were known to have died, the cause of death being
■certified as primarily not due to tuberculosis. One of the deceased persons had been notified
as suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis as early as 1908. In addition, the deaths of 20
persons, notified as suffering from non-pulmonary tuberculosis, were recorded during the five
years, death being attributed to causes other than tuberculosis. A tabular statement
showing the intervals between notification and death observed in these 115 instances is
given in Table 13, and in Table 14 an analysis of the certified causes of death. It is almost
certain that a number of similar occurrences took place among those marked in the Registers
as " removed." There is a great need of a system of exchange of dossiers of cases between
Medical Officers of Health. Until patients are more systematically followed up, our
knowledge of the life history of the disease and of the duration of life of the tuberculous will
be incomplete. Deductions and conclusions based on the present incomplete data are not
only misleading but even unnecessarily depressing.