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
Camberwell 1934
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Camberwell.
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94
in the County of London hitherto performed by the Metropolitan
Society for the Blind on its behalf.
TUBERCULOSIS.
Notification of Tuberculosis.
During 1934, 419 new cases of this disease came to the notice
of this department, comprising 284 notifications of pulmonary
tuberculosis and 57 notifications of non-pulmonary tuberculosis;
12 posthumous notifications; information relating to 40 persons
who had been notified in other areas outside the Borough and now
resident in Camberwell, and 26 persons who had died from tuberculosis
and not previously notified. The comparative figure of new
cases for 1933 was 429.
During the year 202 deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis and
29 deaths from non-pulmonary forms were registered. The deaths
from all forms of tuberculosis during the past five years were as
follows:—
Pulmonary. Non-Pulmonary. Total.
1930 222 43 265
1931 241 27 268
1932 214 34 248
1933 221 22 243
1934 202 29 231
The following table shows the period between the receipt of the primary notification and the death of the patient.
| Pulmonary. | Non-Pulmonary. | |
|---|---|---|
| Notified within one month of death | 23 | 7 |
| Notified within three months of death | 20 | – |
| Notified within six months | 17 | – |
| Notified more than six months | 114 | 4 |
| Not notified | 17 | 9 |
| Notified after death | 6 | 6 |
The ratio of non-notified tuberculosis deaths to the total
tuberculosis deaths was 1 to 8.88 as compared with 1 to 11.57 in 1933.
The fault of late notification usually does not lie with the
medical practitioner, but is due to the unwillingness of the patients
themselves to seek medical aid until the disease has advanced to a
stage that recovery is improbable. This can be understood as the
average individual dreads to learn that he is suffering from tuberculosis.
The Health Department's aim has been and always will be to
educate the public that the prospects of recovery are more favourable
in the early stages of pulmonary tuberculosis, and that a patient
serves his own interest best and that of preventing the spread of this
disease to others by submitting himself for examination when the
slightest suspicion exists that he may be suffering from tuberculosis.