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 1961
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Harrow]
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increased risk. 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. The position
this year then was the same as in previous years in which in the vast
majority of cases of this infection no reason could be discovered to account
for the breakdown in resistance which allowed the organism to gain 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 nonpulmonary
cases from the date the disease was arrested.
The following 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, 1961 | 1,263 | 1,000 | 124 | 146 |
| No. of new cases added | 52 | 32 | 2 | 3 |
| No. of new cases other than on a Form "A" | 29 | 33 | — | 1 |
| No. of cases restored to register | 4 | 3 | — | — |
| No. of cases removed | 135 | 95 | 5 | 5 |
| No. on register, 31st December, 1961 | 1,213 | 973 | 121 | 145 |
Of the 242 deductions, ninety-three (ninety-two pulmonary) were of
persons who had left the district, thirty-four (thirty-one pulmonary) were
of persons who had died, eighty-eight (eighty-two pulmonary) were of
persons who had recovered and seventeen (sixteen pulmonary) were of
persons who had been lost sight of.
The net decrease in the number of cases on the register is eighty-one,
there being seventy-seven fewer pulmonary cases and four fewer nonpulmonary
cases.
This is the fifth consecutive year it has been possible to record a fall
in the number of cases on the register. In 1960 there was an increase of
two in non-pulmonary cases. Apart from this, each of these years has
seen a diminution in the number of cases for each sex and for each type
of disease.
Deaths. This infection caused the deaths of eleven local residents
last year, nine (three men and six women) from pulmonary disease, and
two (one of each sex) from a non-pulmonary lesion. There were twe