London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
St Pancras 1947
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for St. Pancras, Metropolitan Borough]
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62
Death from tuberculosis before notification may be due to:—(1) Sudden death of a
person who has not consulted a doctor since tuberculosis has developed. (2) Sudden death of
a person who has been notified elsewhere but has not consulted a doctor since arrival in the
Borough. (3) Difficulty in diagnosis before death. (4) The doctor being under an erroneous
impression that the case has been notified in the Borough previously.
When necessary a communication is sent to the certifying practitioner asking for an
explanation of the circumstances under which formal notification was not made. No case
occurred in which it appeared to be desirable to institute proceedings for deliberate or wilful
neglect to comply with the regulations.
The interval elapsing between notification and death is an indication of the efficiency
of notification. In the following table the deaths from tuberculosis (from 1st January to
31st December) are classified according to this interval:—
Tuberculosis Deaths , 1947.*
| Time of Notification | Pulmonary | Non-Pulmonary | Total | Percentage | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | Male | Female | |||
| 1947— | ||||||
| Discovered on death | 8 | 6 | 1 | — | 15 | 14.5 |
| Six months or less before death | 12 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 20 | 19.4 |
| Remainder | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 1947 Total | 20 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 35 | 33.9 |
| 1946 | 17 | 7 | — | 1 | 25 | 24.3 |
| 1945 | 2 | 2 | — | — | 4 | 3.9 |
| 1944 | 3 | 2 | — | — | 5 | 4.9 |
| 1943 | 5 | 1 | — | — | 6 | 5.8 |
| 1942-1938 | 13 | 5 | — | — | 18 | 17.5 |
| Before 1938 | 5 | 5 | — | — | 10 | 9.7 |
| Total | 65 | 32 | 3 | 3 | 103 | 100.0 |
*Note.— This table is compiled from all deaths from tuberculosis known to have occurred in St. Pancras
during the year under review, but the total does not as a rule correspond exactly with the total obtained from
the Registrar-General and shown in the preceding table because a few deaths may be allocated by him to the
previous or subsequent year.