London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Harrow 1958
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow]
This page requires JavaScript
99
A history of close contact with someone suffering from pulmonary
tuberculosis, usually a member of a household, was obtained much less
commonly this year. In the case of men it was obtained in only ten per
cent, of cases in women twenty-five per cent. The history was obtained
in all in only 13 instances out of 87, as compared with a figure of 27 out
of 87 in the previous year.
There were seven instances again this year of persons being notified
who were engaged in occupations in which in general the incidence is
higher amongst those so employed than it is in the general population.
Some illnesses or other states predispose to the onset of tuberculosis.
There was only one instance of that this year. Four of the women who
were notified were pregnant when the disease was diagnosed, or they had
only recently been confined,
While there are in numbers of these cases factors which it is considered
might have an important bearing on the development of the disease in
these patients, in the vast majority no such factors can be detected, and
the illness strikes almost out of the blue, some who apparently are living
in comfortable healthy conditions.
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 nonpulmonary
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, 1st January, 1958 | 1,310 | 1,029 | 135 | 148 |
| No. of new cases added (primary notification) | 65 | 40 | 6 | 7 |
| No. of cases other than primary notifications | 41 | 37 | 2 | 1 |
| no. of cases restored to Register | 8 | 10 | - | - |
| No. of cases removed | 118 | 97 | 14 | 12 |
| No. on register, 31st December, 1958 | 1,306 | 1,019 | 129 | 144 |
On the 241 deductions, 117 (109 pulmonary) were of persons who had
left the district, 23 (20 pulmonary) were of persons who had died, 73
2 pulmonary) were of persons who had recovered and 27 (23 pulmonary)
were of persons who had been lost sight of. One had been denotified.
The net decrease in the number of cases on the register is 24, there
being 14 fewer pulmonary cases and 10 fewer non-pulmonary cases.