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Report by Dr. C.H.C. Toussaint,
Clinical Tuberculosis Officer.
In spite of an increase of thirteen in the number of new
cases of Pulmonary Tuberculosis notified during the year, it is
gratifying to be able to record a further fall in the number of
deaths from this form of the disease. The death rate from
respiratory tuberculosis, .79, is once more a record low figure for
this borough.
Effort is constantly made to secure notification of all cases
at the earliest moment, and during the year there occurred only
two deaths from pulmonary disease, and three deaths from other
forms of tuberculosis, in cases which had not previously been
notified. Of the former, one was a female, aged 46, admitted to
the local hospital shortly before death, and the other a girl, aged
14, admitted to hospital with tuberculous meningitis, postmortem
examination showing that the bronchial glands were
infected —the case being classified as "pulmonary" on this
account. It is of interest to record that this girl lived in the same
house as a man affected with pulmonary disease, and used to visit
his room on occasions. In the absence of disease in the girl's
own family there was a strong suspicion that infection was
contracted from the case mentioned.
Of the un-notified non-pulmonary deaths two were female
children, aged 4 and 2, who died from tuberculous meningitis,
and one was a male aged 47, who died from Addison's disease
(tuberculosis of the supra-renal glands). In these cases a precise
diagnosis is, from the nature of the disease, often a difficult
matter to secure during life.
Attention has been drawn in these reports previously, and by
tuberculosis workers in most other districts, to the unfortunate
fact that a large number of cases first come to the notice of the
Tuberculosis Officer at a stage when disease has already secured
a firm hold on the patient. Tuberculosis of the lungs, together