View report page

3
PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS.
Mass Radiography.
During the year it was arranged that the Mass Miniature Radiography Unit operated by the
London County Council should visit the City. Your Medical Officer was responsible for finding
suitable premises in which the Unit could be set up and for bringing to the notice of the business
firms in the City the facilities for examinations which were offered.
The Governors and Staff of St. Bartholomew's Hospital were most helpful and despite the fact
that the rooms first selected were shortly afterwards damaged by a flying bomb, other and even more
convenient accommodation was found. There was no guide as to the response to propaganda.
Naturally, therefore, the firms with large and highly organised staffs were first approached. A
statement in simple language of the objects of mass radiography and the procedure and the advantage
of such examination to the individual together with an assurance that the results would be regarded
as strictly confidential, was circulated to such firms. Since only one Mass Radiography Unit was
available for the whole county, it had to be moved from centre to centre, so that the whole area could
be covered, and the intention was that the Unit should deal in each centre with about 5,000 examinees
and then move on. The response to propaganda in the City exceeded all expectations, and floods of
applications poured in, a tribute to the interest of employers in the health of their staffs, to the work
of the liaison officers whom they appointed, and to the enlightened outlook of their employees. The
London County Council kindly undertook to extend the number to be dealt with from 5,000 to 10,000
and then to 15,000, but there a halt had to be called to the disappointment of many of the later
applicants. Moreover, it was not possible to extend the facilities to the smaller firms as had been
intended. The majority of the examinees were, therefore, men and women who worked under the
best conditions in large modern office buildings, and who probably also enjoyed good home conditions.
When the Unit visits the City again effort will be made to give priority to those who work in
smaller, older offices and whose home conditions are perhaps less satisfactory. Administratively this will
obviously be more difficult, but the experience gained in dealing with the larger firms will be valuable
and their example may be stimulating.
The arrangements worked smoothly and the Medical Officer and Operating Staff of the Mass
Radiography Unit were well pleased with the accommodation and with the working conditions, for
which credit and thanks are due to St. Bartholomew's Hospital.
The London County Council have kindly informed your Medical Officer of the results of the
examinations, which are as follows:—
The total number of persons who attended for examination was 14,446, of whom 7,158 were
men and 7,288 were women. Four hundred and sixty-seven (3.2 per cent.) were asked to attend for
a full-sized X-ray film to be taken, six failed to attend. In 120 cases the large X-ray revealed no
abnormality. In 150 cases (1 per cent. of the total examined) of whom 114 (1.3 per cent.) were men,
and 36 (0.5 per cent.) were women, the large X-ray revealed old healed tubercular lesions, in regard
to which no further action was indicated.
One hundred and sixty-six cases (11 per cent. of the total) comprising 93 men (1.3 per cent.)
and 73 women (1 per cent.) were found to have lesions in the lungs which were probably tuberculous
and were referred for treatment.
In twenty-five cases (15 men and 10 women) disease of the heart or blood vessels was detected.
In January, 1945, your Medical Officer obtained from the Medical Research Council statistics of
the results up to that time of Miniature Radiography examinations of civilians in the country generally.
Those figures were not given in exactly the same form as those supplied by the London County Council.
The Medical Research Council stated that 0 3 to 0 5 per cent. of persons examined for the first
time were found to have tuberculosis of the lungs of such degree as to require treatment, and 0.8 to
1 per cent. were found to have small foci of tubercle requiring general advice and observation only.
It seems that these two classes would together be represented by the category of " probably tuberculous
" in the L.C.C. returns. On this assumption, the comparison is as follows:—
Country generally 11 per cent. to 1.5 per cent.
City 1.1 per cent.
The figures for the City are, therefore, amongst the best so far, but it should be repeated that
the examinees were on this occasion taken from the largest business houses, and that both their home
and working conditions were probably better than those of many workers in the City.
VENEREAL DISEASE CENTRE.
Sessions held daily except Sunday.
During the year a total of 1,007 persons attended the V.D. Treatment Centre at St. Bartholomew's
Hospital.
Cases of Syphilis numbered 370 (213 males and 157 females).
Cases of Gonorrhoea numbered 222 (212 males and 10 females).
Cases of Soft Chancre numbered 1 (male).
414 cases (289 males and 125 females) attending were found not to be suffering from any venereal
disease.
Of the cases of Syphilis attending for the first time only 13, including 2 Service cases, were in
the primary stage.
16 were in the secondary stage and 47 in later stages.
6 were cases of congenital syphilis.
210 cases of syphilis were still under treatment or observation from the previous year.
47 who had been removed from the register, returned suffering from a relapse. 31 cases attended
Bart's for the first time but had commenced their treatment elsewhere.