View report page

With regard to the new cases of venereal disease, information was obtained as
to whether the infection was recently acquired in patients attending the clinics for
the first time during the year 1937, and also as to the number of patients suffering
from congenital syphilis. The returns received from the treatment centres showed
that, as regards syphilis, in approximately 40 per cent, of the new patients the
disease was in either a primary or secondary stage, and, in the case of gonorrhoea,
in 92 per cent, the infection had taken place within a year. Patients suffering
from congenital syphilis not known to have received previous treatment numbered
284, compared with 265 in 1936; the age and sex distribution was as follows :—

The need for improving conditions likely to cause patients to discontinue attendance
at the clinics continues to receive careful attention. Where necessary,
patients are transferred from one clinic to another, which they can attend more
conveniently. The provision of facilities for intermediate treatment of gonorrhoea
at times other than during the hours when the medical officer attends is meeting
with considerable success. A number of patients still fail to complete the full course
of treatment because of the false impression that a cure has been effected on the
disappearance of outward signs of the disease.
In past years the ratio of attendances has been stated as so many attendances
to each new case of V.D. admitted to the clinics 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 1937 the total attendances of
V.D. patients was 907,380, and the ratio of attendances of V.D. patients to new
V.D. cases was 69, compared with 59 in 1933, 66 in 1934, 69 in 1935 and 67 in 1936.
Attendances