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 1957
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow]
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96
case when a person is notified here within a matter of weeks of his coming
to live here. There were 11 of these cases.
A history of close contact with someone suffering from pulmonary
tuberculosis, usually a member of the household, was obtained in twentynine
per cent, of the cases of men and thirty-five per cent, of the women;
or 27 out of the 87 cases in which a history was obtained.
Tuberculosis is rather more common in those engaged in certain
occupations than in the general population. There was seven instances
of that this year.
Some illness or other state predisposes to the onset of tuberculosis
to such an extent that it is possible that in some cases had there not been
that predisposing cause the patient would not have suffered from a clinical
attack. There was, however, only one such case this year.
Quite a number of notifications are received in respect of some who
fall ill while they are serving in the Forces. There was only one such
case this year.
Assuming that these conditions were in fact responsible for the
breakdown in these cases, they numbered only 47 out of 141. About the
remainder, it is not known what caused the lowering of their resistance
and enabled the organisms to get the upper hand.
Register
The tuberculosis register is a compilation of the names of those
persons in the district who are suffering from the disease or have recently
suffered from it. The names of those newly notified are added to it, and
entries are made of those persons who have moved into the district
suffering from tuberculosis. Names are deleted on the removal of persons
from the district or on death or recovery, an accepted standard of recovery
being a lapse of five years in the pulmonary cases and three years in
non-pulmonary cases from the date the disease was arrested.
The following table is a summary of the changes which have taken place in the register during the year:—
| Pulmonary | Non-Pulmonary | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Male | Female | Male | Female | |
| No. on register, January 1st, 1957 | 1,313 | 1,047 | 139 | 156 |
| No. of new cases added (primary notification) | 80 | 53 | 3 | 5 |
| No. of cases other than primary notifications | 38 | 30 | 2 | 3 |
| No. of cases restored to register | 8 | 5 | — | 2 |
| No of cases removed | 129 | 106 | 9 | 18 |
| No. on register, December 31st, 1957 | 1,310 | 1,029 | 135 | 148 |
On the 260 deductions, 115 (110 pulmonary) were of persons who
had left the district, 31 (28 pulmonary) were of persons who had died
86 (72 pulmonary) were of persons who had recovered and 28 (28 pulmonary)
were of persons who had been lost sight of. Two had been
denotified.
The net decrease in the number of cases on the register is 33, there
being 21 fewer pulmonary cases and 12 fewer non-pulmonary cases.