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 1956
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow]
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70
this country, no less than 78 per cent. of these being in age groups 15 to
39. In the country as a whole an average of 750 new cases are discovered
each week, most of them in the age group of 15 to 39, and over 100 persons
die each week. In this district an average of three new cases every week
occur in persons who presumably contracted the infection while living
here.
Notification
The following table gives the age and sex distribution of the persons resident in the district who were notified for the first time during 1956 to be suffering from tuberculosis, divided these into those suffering from pulmonary and from those suffering from non-pulmonary tuberculosis:
| 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 | - | |||||||
| 5-9 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| 10-14 | 3 | — | 1 | — | — | 1 | — | — |
| 15-19 | 7 | 10 | — | 1 | 1 | 3 | — | — |
| 20-24 | 9 | 12 | — | 2 | 7 | 9 | — | 2 |
| 25-34 | 11 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 28 | 25 | 1 | 1 |
| 35-44 | 21 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 6 | — | — |
| 45-54 | 19 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | — | — |
| 55-64 | 15 | 4 | — | — | 5 | — | — | — |
| 65 and over | 4 | 1 | — | 1 | — | 1 | — | — |
| Totals | 91 | 51 | 8 | 10 | 52 | 48 | 1 | 3 |
The combined figure of 264 compares with that of 287 for the previous
year. The number of primary notifications 160 is the number sent to
the Registrar General; there were 183 in 1955.
In a number of instances, although the person was notified for the
first time to be suffering from the infection while resident here, he had m
fact probably contracted his infection before coming to live in this
district. This applied to 110 pulmonary cases (62 male and 48 female)
and 3 non-pulmonary cases (1 male and 2 female). Of those notified
then probably not more than 150 of the pulmonary cases contracted their
infection while living here and 19 of the non-pulmonary cases. These
figures which compare with 187 for 1955 mean that every week throughout
the year an average of 3 persons in the district were stricken with the
complaint.
What the source of infection was can be conjectured only in a small
number of these cases. Tuberculosis is more common amongst those
who are home contacts of a patient than amongst the rest of the population
and many cases are detected as the result of examining the immediaiate
contacts of those who have been recognised to be suffering from the
disease. Where there is a sufferer in the house whose history of illness