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43
PNEUMONIA.
Figures with regard to notification will be found on page 64, and information as
to methods of prevention, etc., adopted in relation to this disease will be found in
previous reports.
The services of the nurses were requisitioned in 49 cases and 1,025 visits were
paid.
TUBERCULOSIS.
In all 271 notifications were received, 234 relating to pulmonary tuberculosis,
the remainder (37) to cases in which structures other than the lungs were affected.
The table given on page 44 contains the information required by the Ministry
of Health with regard to notifications. Notifications on Form B relate to school
children. The number it will be noted was 20 as against 14 in 1920.
From time to time reference is made to the difficulty associated with the obtaining
of notifications sufficiently early, and the following figures are introduced because
they are interesting in this connection. They relate, as will be seen, to cases in
which death had taken place before the fact that the individual was suffering from
the disease had been brought to the notice of the Medical Officer of Health, as
required by the regulations :—
1920 1921
1. Total number of deaths from tuberculosis in the Borough 122 117
2. The number of cases only notified at death 7 1
3. The number of cases notified within a month of death 9 7
4. The number of cases notified within three months of death 12 9
5. The number of cases notified within six months of death 8 12
In collating these figures it has been ascertained that of the 122 deaths in 1920
46 were certified at death only and were not notified; the majority dying in Mental
Hospitals. The same remark applies to 1921, when 32 cases were certified on the
death returns, which had not been previously notified.
Treatment of Tuberculosis.—Of the cases notified 185 received some form of
institutional treatment, and during the year every effort was made to obtain
admission to sanatoria of cases deemed suitable for such treatment. Of the total
new cases notified 148 were insured persons: of these 81 were admitted to sanatorium
or hospital treatment and 47 to the Infirmary. Non-insured persons numbered 117,
of whom 51 (27 being children) received sanatorium treatment and 6 were admitted
to the Infirmary. Nurses were sent in to 18 cases and 850 visits were paid.