View report page

Early Infective Syphilis comprises patients suffering from
primary syphilis, secondary syphilis, or syphilis latent during
the first year of infection. Later stages, irrespective of the
clinical type, are described as late syphilis.
The term Previously Treated includes all patients who have
been treated for venereal infections of any nature at other
centres or in the Services.
Non-Venereal Conditions are those conditions, such as nonspecific
urethritis and prostatitis in men, and various forms of
vaginitis, any of which it is customary to treat in venereal
clinics. Under this heading is also a large number of patients
who were found not to be in need of treatment.
A Return Case is one who has been removed from the
records of current cases in a previous year.
The total number of patients treated during the year was
822. This includes 116 who were already under treatment on
the 1st January. Of this total., 624 were discharged cured, or
diagnosed as non-venereal during the year.
Defaulters of Venereal Patients
The total number of patients found to be infected with
Venereal Disease was 372. This includes 86 under treatment or
observation at the beginning of the year. Of this total, 101
have been written off as defaulters—approximately 38 per cent.
It is hoped that too much significance will not be attached to
this figure, because the number of patients who ceased attending
before completing treatment was only 42, representing approximately
10 per cent. The total defaulter rate, as set out above,
includes those who had completed treatment but not the period
of tests of cure and observation. It must be pointed out that
this period, in the case of syphilitics, covers at least two years.
Therefore, although there is no justification for complacency,
it is the patients who cease attending before completion of their
treatment who give real grounds for concern.
Every effort is made to induce such patients to resume
attending. Letters are sent, and when it is thought advisable,
they are visited. In this connection, much valuable work has been
done by two Health Visitors of the Public Health Department
of West Ham, and I should like here to express my appreciation
to the Medical Officer of Health for his great help in providing
for this clinic the assistance of these two ladies.
No details are available as to the causes of defaulting.
From general impression, women are more conscientious patients
than men. Patients with syphilis appear to regard their infection
more seriously than those with gonorrhea, as, of course,
they should. There is reason to fear that some patients, in
common with the public generally, have acquired, before contracting
an infection, an exaggerated belief in the curative
properties of penicillin. This is a probable cause of defaulting
in some cases, and indirectly, it may be added, of acquiring
their infection in the first place. When the occasion arises, the
view held in this clinic is stated quite simply and clearly. It is,
19