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 1960
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow]
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84
TUBERCULOSIS
Notification. Both the national and local figures of notifications
of tuberculosis have fallen. Locally this decline set in in 1955 when there
were 183 new cases. In each succeeding year there were smaller numbers
of notifications, there being only 102 in 1959. Last year there was a slight
rise to 107. In addition to the notifications of new cases which refer to
persons living here contracting the infection for the first time during the
year, the district acquires other cases new to it by the transfer into the
area of people who have already been infected and have been recognised
to be suffering from the disease before they came here. These numbers
too have continued to fall each year with the result that the total number
of cases new to the district has fallen steadily from a figure of 287 in 1955
to 176 last year. The local notification rate per thousand population was
0-49. The corresponding figure for the country as a whole was 0-53.
The following table gives the age and sex distribution both of the persons resident in the district which were learned of for the first time to be suffering from tuberculosis, and of those who moved into the district already suffering from the disease :—
| Primary Notification | Brought to notice other than on Form "A" | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pulmonary | Non-pulmonary | Pulmonary | Non- pulmonary | |||||
| M | F | M | F | M | F | M | F | |
| Under 1 | _ | _ | _ | _ | — | _ | — | |
| 1-4 | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 5-9 | — | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | _ | — |
| 10-14 | — | 2 | _ | — | _ | _ | — | — |
| 15-19 | 3 | 1 | — | 2 | — | — | — | — |
| 20-24 | 6 | 5 | _ | _ | 3 | 9 | — | —- |
| 25-34 | 11 | 4 | — | — | 15 | 11 | 1 | 1 |
| 35-44 | 12 | 6 | — | 2 | 9 | 3 | 1 | — |
| 45-54 | 17 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 1 | — | — |
| 55-64 | 7 | 5 | _ | 1 | 3 | — | — | — |
| 65 and over | 8 | 1 | — | 2 | 2 | 2 | — | — |
| Totals | 67 | 30 | 1 | 9 | 40 | 26 | 2 | I |
A history of close contact with someone suffering from pulmonary
tuberculosis, someone who is usually a member of the household, was
obtained in twenty-three per cent of the cases notified for the first time,
the proportion being the same in each sex.
There are some occupations on which those engaged are specially
prone to contract the infection. There were six instances of this, this last
year.
In addition, notifications were received of two persons who were in the
armed forces.
There was no history of any of those illnesses or other states which
predispose to the onset of tuberculosis.