View report page

There were 73 additions to the Deptford Tuberculosis Register in 1966. This
is a trickle compared with a decade or two ago when a couple of hundred or more
was the rule, but vigilance against tuberculosis is still evidently necessary; it crops
up sporadically in those citizens who fail to look after themselves in an urban environment
where tubercle germs still lurk.
Hence the cases which come from the local common lodging house, from the
immigrants and, to a lesser extent than formerly, from the Londoner born and bred.
At one time, tuberculosis was a disease common and often seen in florid form
among those of Celtic origin who came to London from Ireland, Scotland and
Wales, with little resistance to tubercle germs. This is still the position to some
extent.
The 73 cases comprised 53 men and 20 women. Their place of origin reads like
a geography lesson. Of the 53 males. 48 were British born and 5 were coloured
immigrants. These latter comprised 3 Nigerians, one Indian and one Jamaican.
Of the 48 remaining cases, 22 were born in London, 5 in the Home Counties and
4 in the North Midlands. There were no less than 11 from Eire, 5 from Scotland
and one only from Wales, making 17 males from the Celtic fringe of Britain.
Enquiry of the birthplace of the 20 women revealed 10 Londoners, 2 more from
Eire and one from Jersey, and 7 immigrants from further afield, comprising 3 West
Indians and one each from Ghana, Pakistan, India and Tunisia. Tuberculosis may
have been present in some of these cases before they arrived; some of the health
checks applied abroad may not filter out all the cases.
8 of these persons died in the year of diagnosis, 7 from tuberculosis and one from
other causes. Various additions and subtractions whittled down the Deptford
Tuberculosis Register from 1,232 to 1,158 by the end of 1966.
The 73 additions comprised 54 new tuberculosis notifications and I have added
one new positive case who came to me by chance and who now prefers to stay under
my care, 55 in all. There were also 10 established cases of tuberculosis previously
known in Deptford who had moved away but who preferred to return to familiar
haunts. Finally 18 known tuberculous cases from elsewhere in Britain came to
make their home in Deptford.
To make the numbers smaller there were 87 known cases of tuberculosis who
moved out of Deptford, some under rehousing schemes or individual enterprise,
but a significant number of individuals "disappeared" and then needed my time and
ingenuity in trying to trace them. 11 people were regarded as absolutely cured and
4 more names came off for miscellaneous reasons. 37 deaths occurred on the Register
and I shall now examine this group in more detail.
25 of the deaths were males and 12 females, with an average age of 64 and 65
respectively. The age range was 43 to 85 in males and 41 to 89 in the females.
7 of these deaths, as previously mentioned, were from advanced tuberculosis
in cases too ill to save when first seen by any means of treatment. The remaining
30 had been largely cleared of tuberculosis as a result of treatment before succumbing
to other diseases in which the chest featured prominently. Over and over again
it appears that tuberculosis found and treated early does well, but if found late
healing is then more difficult and scar formation with lung contracture may occur
making the sufferer more liable to respiratory or cardiac failure later in life and the
moral is plain. Thus 20 cases died of cardiorespiratory failure while 10 deaths were
unrelated to the chest.
The average time of survival from the time of diagnosis was 11 years in all cases.
A collective total of 438 years of supervision had been given by the Chest Clinic,
which is startling. One lady born in 1890 had been found tuberculous in 1911,
55 years previously by a predecessor of mine, and had been kept under close review
53