Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Report for the year 1925 of the Medical Officer of Health
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these in the majority of instances now die in New End Hospital,
though a surprisingly large number die away from Hampstead, and of
these we have lost trace. The question of the difficulty in tracing
consumptives who remove is an important one, and it is exemplified in
the following tables which I have drawn out for the purpose of
showing the after-history of the patients notified in the Borough
during certain of the five years under review. The tables deal with
the years 1921 and 1922, and separate tables are given relating to
patients who attended at the Municipal Tuberculosis Dispensary and
those who did not so attend.
These Regulations led to the whole list of known tuberculosis cases in the Borough being overhauled, with the following results:—
Pulmonary. | Non-Pulmonary. | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Males. | Females. | Males. | Females. | |
Number of cases on the Register at the commencement of the year 1925 | 330 | 317 | 102 | 93 |
Number of cases notified under the Regulations for the first time during the year | 46 | 53 | 1 | 13 |
Number of cases brought under notice otherwise than by notification during the year | 8 | 10 | 5 | 5 |
384 | 380 | 108 | 111 | |
*Number of cases removed from the Register during the year | 105 | 109 | 17 | 25 |
Number of cases remaining on the Register at the end of the year | 279 | 271 | 91 | 86 |
The table illustrates the oft-repeated fact that our greatest hope,
almost our only hope, lies in early diagnosis and treatment of this
disease. Only in early cases does there seem much hope of success, and
the mortality rises rapidly in those cases which come under treatment
only in the later stages. The figures given cannot state the position in
its entirety; it is doubtless worse for the reason that there is such a
large number of removals which we cannot trace. Thus in the foregoing
table it is shown that 16 patients removed and no information
was obtainable at that time. We have, however, made endeavours
to trace them, with the result that 6 of the 16 were located. Of these 6