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
Harrow 1955
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow]
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respect of patients who are being notified for the first time not merely
in that district but anywhere. Only these are now counted as the
notified cases. At the same time, as all these notified persons who have
been transferred from elsewhere are now living in the district, their
names must be added to the register of cases which, even though it is
not now accepted as an official register, is still being kept.
The following table sets out the age and sex distribution of the cases notified, divided into the one group of those notified for the first time during the year and the other group of those who had previously been notified but of whom this authority became aware for the first time during the year:
| Primary Notification | Brought to notice other than on a Form "A" | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pulmonary | Non-pulmonary | Pulmonary | Non-pulmonary | |||||
| M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | |
| Under 1 | 2 | - | - | - | 1 | - | - | - |
| 1- 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | - | - | 1 | - | — |
| 5-9 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | — |
| 10-14 | 2 | 1 | - | 1 | _ | 1 | - | — |
| 15-19 | 9 | 8 | 1 | — | 1 | 4 | - | — |
| 20-24 | 15 | 14 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 6 | - | — |
| 25-34 | 17 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 22 | 25 | - | — |
| 35-44 | 21 | 9 | 1 | — | 14 | 4 | - | 1 |
| 45-54 | 13 | 7 | 1 | - | 4 | 2 | - | - |
| 55-64 | 10 | 3 | - | 1 | 2 | - | - | — |
| 65 and over | 10 | 6 | — | — | 1 | 4 | - | 1 |
| Totals | 104 | 62 | 11 | 6 | 53 | 49 | - | 2 |
The combined figure of 287 compares with that of 278 for the
previous year.
These figures mean that every week throughout the year an average
of three persons living in this district were stricken down with this
complaint.
It is, of course, known that tuberculosis is that much commoner
amongst those living in a house where there is already a sufferer than
amongst others. In fact quite a large number of new cases are found
by the routine examination of the contacts of those recognised as being
sufferers. When there is already a sufferer in the house whose history
of illness dates back to before that of the next case occurring in the house,
there is a strong suspicion that the original case was the source of infection
to the other. Out of the 187 patients who apparently contracted their
infection while living in this district 28 (18 males and 10 females) gave a
family history of tuberculosis.
In a number of cases, although the home address of the patient
was in the district, it is probable that the infection was contracted outside.
or that it was the condition of living outside the district that enabled a
previous infection to gain the upper hand. Each year a varying number