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cases of tuberculosis are now diagnosed following hospital attendance for
examination and investigation and it is becoming customary for hospital medical
officers to defer notification until the diagnosis and the presence of infection has
been confirmed bacteriologically by examination of sputum or other pathological
specimen. This is reflected in a fall of the total notified cases as compared with
previous years although, as will be seen from Table 4 there has been an increase
in the number of newly diagnosed cases added to the clinic register in the year.

Deaths:
There were 7 deaths among chest clinic patients directly attributable to
tuberculosis - as low a figure as ever previously recorded. All were respiratory
cases and all were more than 60 years old. There was only one female death
and this in the case of a patient age 65 years who had extensive lung damage as
the result of tuberculosis recurring over the previous forty years.
Of the 6 men all but one were over 65 years old and age changes played a
contributory part in the cause of death. Two were residents in the Council's
hostel for tuberculosis men at Knight's Hill and both these men had developed
tuberculosis infection resistant to standard treatment. One was however over 82
years of age. The other male deaths, as in recent previous years, also reflected
the problems now arising from the onset of drug resistance and neglect in old
age as a contributing cause of death.
There were 25 other known deaths among chest clinic patients including
8 due to cancer of the lung. The majority of deaths however were due to age
and cardiovascular diseases.