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31
1930
In 1930, the Tuberculosis Officer examined 64 new cases of
Pulmonary Tuberculosis and 11 new cases of Non-Pulmonary
Tuberculosis. 55 patients were admitted to Sanatoria under the
county scheme and 18 were admitted to Hospitals.
I pointed out in last years report the conditions under which
notification is not sent or there is delay in notification,, and the
same conditions obtained last year.
In 1930 the Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations 1930,
were issued. These consolidated and amended the Public Health
(Tuberculosis) Regulations of 1912, 1921 and 1924. The new
Regulations came into operation on January l st, 1931.
The most important alteration has been the wording of the
first proviso to article V of the Regulations of 1912, which has
been amended with a view to making it clear that previous notification
in another sanitary district of the same county or another
county does not relieve a medical practitioner from the duty of
notifying. The new regulation requires that the case shall be
notified unless the practitioner has reasonable grounds for
believing that it has already been notified to the Medical Officer
of Health for the same sanitary district. The regulation means
that the case must be notified if a patient has moved from one
sanitary district to another.
Meningococcal Meningitis.
Meningococcal Meningitis, or as it is sometimes called,
Spotted Fever is a compulsorily notifiable infectious disease, but
owing to the peculiar conditions under which it occurs, all the
cases which occur are not notified. The disease was described
in detail in last year's report, and it is unnecessary to deal with
the subject again this year. It is curious, though, that the same
number of deaths occurred in 1930 as in 1929, but none of these
cases had previously been notified. There were five deaths from
the disease, but there was no notification.
Encephalitis Letharigca.
There were 2 notifications of Encephalitis Lethargica and 4
deaths from the disease. The two cases notified this year proved
fatal, and as far as could be ascertained the other two fatal cases
had not previously bee.n notified.
This phenomenon is not surprising. Many cases of this
disease remain unnotified. Frequently the initial symptoms are
so trivial that the nature of the disease has remained undiagnosed,
but the severity of the acute phase of the disease is no criterion
of what is to follow. The mildest acute cases may finish with
the worst chronic stages, whereas the most acute cases frequently
recover completely, if they do not die at once. This is probably
due to the fact the post-encephalitic .symptoms are not sequelae,
due to destroyed nerve cells, but are caused by continued chronic
infection. What the infection is remains as yet unknown. The