View report page

69
This disease has been increasingly prevalent during recent years, and its importance is
due to the fact that it is not only associated with a high death rate, but that many who recover
suffer from physical weakness or mental or moral degeneration, and these after-effects may
develop long after apparent recovery.
The following table gives particulars concerning the cases notified or otherwise coming
to knowledge during the past 5 years, the number of deaths and death rate, and the present
condition of those who recovered:—

PNEUMONIA.
During the year, 231 cases of acute primary pneumonia, and 76 cases of acute influenzal
pneumonia, were notified.
All cases are visited, and, if desired by the Medical Attendant, a nurse is supplied to
necessitous cases, the cost being defrayed by the Borough Council.
During the year, a nurse was provided in 62 instances, 997 nursing visits being paid.
Of the total 307 cases notified, 159 were admitted to various institutions and 148 were
treated in their own homes.
Pneumonia is also a frequent complication of other diseases, but when originating in
this way it is not notifiable. The total number of deaths therefore registered each year as being
due to Pneumonia include other forms of this disease in addition to the notifiable types.
In the early part of the year it was noticed that, in connection with several cases of
pneumonia which had been notified, the patients were all men employed at the same factory.
On visiting the premises I ascertained that work had only recently started, and that an
experimental plant had been laid down to recover tin from scrap metal by a new process. In
the course of the work both chlorine gas and phosgene were generated, and although at
certain stages the workmen used gas masks, on several occasions accidental and unexpected
escapes of these gases had occurred.