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
London County Council 1932
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for London County Council]
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The distribution of new cases of venereal disease between the sexes is shown in the following table, the figures for the preceding years being given for comparison :—
| Year. | New cases. | Total venereal cases. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Syphilis. | Soft chancre. | Gonorrhoea. | ||||||
| M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | |
| 1917 | 4,427 | 3,351 | 199 | 11 | 3,830 | 1,207 | 8,456 | 4,569 |
| 1918 | 3,764 | 3,002 | 116 | 13 | 4,844 | 1,940 | 8,724 | 4,955 |
| 1919 | 6,394 | 3,391 | 463 | 18 | 10,441 | 2,440 | 17,298 | 5,849 |
| 1920 | 6,988 | 3,579 | 766 | 25 | 10,669 | 2,427 | 18,423 | 6,031 |
| 1921 | 5,088 | 3,100 | 458 | 13 | 8,573 | 2,136 | 14,119 | 5,249 |
| 1922 | 4,207 | 2,600 | 309 | 12 | 8,233 | 2,402 | 12,749 | 5,014 |
| 1923 | 4,497 | 2,631 | 311 | 4 | 9,043 | 2,520 | 13,851 | 5,155 |
| 1924 | 4,174 | 2,452 | 301 | 4 | 8,565 | 2,785 | 13,040 | 5,241 |
| 1925 | 3,556 | 2,346 | 268 | 11 | 8,464 | 2,857 | 12,288 | 5,214 |
| 1926 | 3,725 | 2,013 | 301 | 2 | 8,825 | 2,858 | 12,851 | 4,873 |
| 1927 | 3,886 | 2,209 | 203 | 7 | 9,637 | 2,859 | 13,726 | 5,075 |
| 1928 | 3,433 | 1,837 | 229 | 6 | 8,249 | 2,647 | 11,911 | 4,490 |
| 1929 | 3,303 | 1,628 | 276 | 4 | 8,271 | 2,503 | 11,850 | 4,135 |
| 1930 | 3,389 | 1,836 | 347 | 12 | 8,620 | 2,503 | 12,356 | 4,351 |
| 1931 | 3,009 | 1,521 | 326 | 12 | 7,713 | 2,260 | 11,048 | 3,793 |
| 1932 | 3,270 | 1,671 | 172 | 15 | 8,566 | 2,656 | 12,008 | 4,342 |
The age and sex distribution were as follows:—
| Under 1 year. | 1 and under 5 years. | 5 and under 15 years. | 15 years and over. | Total | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. | M. | F. |
| 19 | 35 | 6 | 12 | 30 | 58 | 69 | 107 | 124 | 212 |
Attendances.
Importance is attached to the necessity for securing the regular attendance of
patients at the clinics, more especially in the case of gonorrhoea, and efforts to secure
the requisite provision of facilities for intermediate treatment at times other than
during the hours when the medical officer attends are meeting with considerable
success. A number of patients still fail to complete the full course of treatment
considered necessary before final discharge, due in no small measure to the false
impression that a cure has been effected on the disappearance of outward signs of
the disease. The need for improving conditions likely to cause patients to discontinue
attendance at the clinics or to transfer them from one clinic to another continues to
receive careful attention.
In past years the ratio of attendances has been stated as so many attendances
to each new case of V.D. admitted to the clinic? during the year. By this means
an estimate, comparable year by year, is obtained of the efficiency of the work as
measured by the continued attendance. For the year 1932 the total attendances of
V.D. patients was 907,406, and the ratio of attendances of V.D. patients to new
V.D. cases was 55, compared with 57 in 1931 and 46 in 1930.