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Report by Dr. C. H. C. Toussaint,
Clinical Tuberculosis Officer.
During the year there was an increase of eight in the deaths
from Pulmonary Tuberculosis, and a continued fall in the deaths
from non-pulmonary forms of the disease. This has led to a
slight increase in the death rate from respiratory tuberculosis,
but the rate, .95, which had fallen to fresh low records during the
two preceding years is below the average for the last ten years.
The decline in the number of new cases has continued, and
should lead to a further fall in the death rate.
In Table 11. are reported six deaths from pulmonary disease,
of patients who had not been notified during life. Of these,
two were men, aged 81 and 63 respectively, whose deaths were
sudden and were the subject of Coroners' enquiries. One death
was that of a man, aged 41, who died from general peritonitis
following a perforated gastric ulcer, together with lobar pneumonia,
evidence of tuberculosis being found only on post-mortem
examination.
Of the other three cases, one a girl, aged 22, died from a
sudden fatal haemoptysis, not having been under medical care
previously, and the other two, one a man aged 28, and the other a
woman aged 24, both died in local municipal hospitals, soon after
admission, from acute forms of pulmonary tuberculosis.
During the last few years there has been a slow but steady
increase in the average period between notification and death, in
pulmonary cases. During 1935 one to five years, or more, elapsed
between notification and death in 57 % of fatal cases, as compared
with 53% in 1934. This indicates an increase in the expectation
of life in such persons.