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56
Home visiting of Ex- Service tuberculoid men.—The following information
for the year 1921, required by the Ministry of Health, is
submitted:—
1. Number of discharged men visited 94
2. Total number of visits of this kind 252
3. Proportion of number of visits to such cases to
total number of visits to tuberculous cases 18 per cent.
The death-rate from tuberculosis in the Borough shows, as expected,
an increase on the very low figure recorded last year. I do not
consider that we need regard this as in any way signifying an increase
of tuberculosis in the district. Tuberculosis is a disease so much
influenced by seasonal conditions and the incidence of other diseases,
that the only fair method of comparison is to take the average of a
number of years; i.e., a period sufficient to cover the expectation of life
of a patient with declared tuberculosis. The influenza epidemic of 1917
and 1918 undoubtedly was the determining factor in the early death of a
large number of consumptives, whose death otherwise one would have
expected in the following years.
Thus, the deaths in 1917 and 1918 show a decided rise at 85
and 89 respectively, and in the following two years a sharp fall to 72 and
55. The live yearly averages up to and including 1920 are as follows:—
1906-1910=82; 1911-1915=70; 1916-1920=76.
During the last seven years, the statistics for the community have
been considerably raised by the importation of disease, which normally
we should not have; in the return of ex-service men, who contracted
tuberculosis in the army or who had quiescent disease which was
activated by army service.
The total deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis for the year 1921 was
63; of these 12 were discharged soldiers.
At the present time 94 discharged soldiers suffering with this
disease are resident in this district.
The number of cases of tuberculosis known to the Department at
the end of 1921 totals 969=698 pulmonary and 271 non-pulmonary.
It is instructive to note that the deaths from non-pulmonary
tuberculosis for the past five years are as follows:—16; 14; 16; 14;
8.
The assumption, therefore, that the average death-rate is continuing
to fall is, I think, justified.