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TUBERCULOSIS.
INTRODUCTION.
It will be seen from the following seetions that there was
a slight increase in the number of notifications of all types of
tuberculosis during the year, but that there was a fall in the
death rate from the disease. Fluctuations of small extent may
be expected, and these slight increases in no way vitiate the conclusion
that the disease is steadily becoming less prevalent.
Nevertheless, in a large industrial area such as West Ham the
low rates which have been recorded within recent years are a very
satisfactory feature.
Attention has repeatedly been directed to the fact that in
the large towns in the country there is a definite increase in the
incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis in young adults. Several
theories have been advanced to explain this unpleasant tendency.
From the figures which are given in Table V. it will be seen that
during the year 1937 the total number of new cases of all forms of
tuberculosis in the area was 407, and that of these 115—or 28.3
per cent.—referred to patients between the ages of 15 and 25 years.
When this proportion is regarded from the comparative aspect, it
must be considered as high. It should be noted that of the 142 new
cases of pulmonary tuberculosis in females of all ages, 33—or 23.2
per cent.—were girls between 15 and 20 years, and 26—or 18.3 per
cent.—were girls between 20 and 25 years, so that in females 41.5
per cent, of the new cases suffering from the pulmonary form of the
disease were young adult females. Expressed in another way, new
cases of pulmonary tuberculosis in young adult females between
the ages of 15 and 25 years constituted 14.5 per cent, of all new
cases of tuberculosis—pulmonary and non-pulmonary—at all ages.
This result is probably an expression of the mode of life of the
young adults of our time. The problem cannot be discussed
further in a report of this nature, but it is one which merits the
attention of both the scientist and the social worker.
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