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51
Non-Respiratory Tuberculosis
The three new cases diagnosed during the year were not due to bovine
tuberculosis, of which no new case is recorded in the Borough. They were all
secondary to an original pulmonary infection.
Respiratory Tuberculosis
There were eighty-nine new cases of pulmonary tuberculosis diagnosed
and added to the Register during the year - representing no significant change
in incidence over the past five years. Again there are just over twice as many
cases in men as in women.
In the majority the source of infection could not be traced and the population's
hidden infector pool of infectious cases must to a large extent be
held responsible. This view is supported by the reduced number of child cases,
itself testimony to the efficacy of preventive measures in tuberculous households
and to B.C.G. vaccination of contacts and school-children.

Table 2 compares Chest Clinic figures over the past ten years - during
which time chemo-therapy has been available, and it shows the initial reduction
in the number of deaths up to 1957 associated with this form of treatment.
Since then, however, the improvement has not been so impressive and the
steady incidence of new cases has continued over the past three years. This
levelling out of the curve of death rate and incidence illustrates resistance to
both prevention and treatment. To what extent this follows the emergence of
drug resistant strains of tubercle bacilli is not yet known and is the subject of
research by the Medical Research Council.