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173
[1911
"Under the Public Health (Tuberculosis in Hospitals) Regulations, 1911,
cases of pulmonary tuberculosis occurring in the practice of hospitals, including
dispensaries and similar institutions wholly or partially supported, otherwise than
by the contributions of the patients, or from rates and taxes, became similarly
notifiable from the 1st May, 1911 ; and from the 1st January, 1912, under the
Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1911, all cases of pulmonary tuberculosis
under medical care became compulsorily notifiable, except in a few
instances set out in the Order.
"Of the local value of the notifications of infectious diseases thus received
no doubt can be entertained. These notifications have forced on sanitary
authorities the knowledge of the presence of these diseases in their midst, and
the reiteration of the lesson thus imparted has led to investigation of sources
of disease, and to the adoption, to a greater extent than would otherwise
have been likely, of measures for preventing the spread of infection. Under
active local administration, particularly, each notified case has become the
starting-point for the discovery of cases previously overlooked.
"The possession by each Medical Officer of Health of information as to
the number of cases of the different infectious diseases in his own district does
not exhaust the utility of notification. The interchange of prompt and
trustworthy information as to similar cases in neighbouring districts, in the rest
of the country, and even in other countries, evidently would enable the Medical
Officer of Health to forecast the possibilities of introduction of a given disease
and to be on the alert on the first suspicion of its presence. The realisation of
these possibilities led Dr. Tatham, then Medical Officer of Health of Salford,
to arrange in 1888 with the Medical Officers of Health of 32 other towns to
exchange weekly lists of notifications, these being tabulated and confidentially
circulated. In 1889 the Local Government Board undertook this tabulation
and distribution of weekly returns to the towns which co-operated in the scheme,
and has continued this task. From 1892 onwards the Board have published in
their Annual Report statistics of the number of cases of and deaths from the
compulsorily notifiable diseases occurring in districts which numbered 117 in
1892, and had increased to 252 in 1910. From 1901 onwards the RegistrarGeneral
of Births and Deaths has published statistics of notifiable diseases
supplied by the Board, and in the case of the County of London by its Medical
Officers of Health. These statistics, which at first related to 100 towns, are
now published in the form of quarterly and annual returns of infectious diseases
in 213 towns."