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
Croydon 1963
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Croydon]
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31
The Chest Clinic and Home Visiting
2,202 new cases were examined during the year. 107 were
found to be definitely tuberculous..
The total number of attendances for examination at the Chest
Clinic was 17,696.
The Clinic doctors paid 158 home visits and the Tuberculosis
Visitors 2,209 visits for Clinic purposes. In addition the
Tuberculosis Visitors made 194 primary visits for the purposes
of the Notification Register. There were also 951 unsuccessful
visits made.
Patients requiring home nursing or surgical dressings are
attended to by the nurses from the Croydon Nursing Association,
by arrangement with that organisation. Their assistance is a
valuable adjunct in the care of domiciliary cases.
Contact Examination
The examination and subsequent supervision of persons coming
into contact with patients suffering from Tuberculosis plays an
important part in the prevention of the spread of infection.
During 1963, 651 persons were examined for the first time as
contacts of notified cases of Tuberculosis, giving a contactcase
ratio of 5 for each notified case during the year.
Of these contacts, 8 were found to be tuberculous. This is
equal to a Tuberculosis rate per 1, 000 contacts of 12 compared
with 0.74 per 1,000 of the general population. In addition,
there were 2 found to be tuberculous who had been under observation
from previous years.
The number of new contacts examined, together with the numbers of new cases of Tuberculosis notified in previous years
are as follows: —
| 1962 - New contacts examined | 717 | New cases of Tuberculosis | 116 |
| 1961 -„ „ „ „ | 742 | „ „ „ „ | 190 |
| I960- „ „ „ „ | 676 | „ „ „ „ | 139 |
| 1959 - „ „ „ „ | 775 | „ „ „ „ | 148 |
| 1958 - „ „ „ „ | 748 | „ „ „ „ | 161 |