View report page

(b) TUBERCULOSIS
No staffing changes occurred in the Tuberculosis Services provided for the
Borough during the year. Out-patient diagnosis and treatment and some aspects of
preventive work are carried out at the West Ham Chest Clinic and arrangements are made
for hospital and sanatorium treatment of patients attending there.
Details of the work of the Health Cepartment, in conjunction with the Chest
Physician, for the prevention and control of tuberculosis are given on pages 59 -64.
(a) NOTIFICATIONS. One hundred and eighty nine new cases of tuberculosis
(115 males and 74 females) were notified during 1954, a decrease of 28 eases below the
previous year's figure of 217.

Sources of primary notification were from Chest Clinic, Hospitals and Sanatoria
and general practitioners.
The following table shows the localisation of the disease in the 22 non-respiratory
cases notified:-
Meninges - 4
Abdomen - 1
Bones and joints - 6
Glands - 6
Other organs - 5
(b) DEATHS. During the year 28 cases, including three cases brought to notice
posthumously, died from tuberculosis as compared with 36 deaths in the previous year; only
one of these deaths was caused by a non-respiratory form of the disease {a tuberculous bone
lesion). The 27 deaths thus ascribed to respiratory tuberculosis gave a death rate of 0.l6
per 1,000 of the population. The death rate for England and Wales for this form of the
disease was also 0.l6.

I.76 per cent, of the deaths in the Borough from all causes was due to Tuberculosis.
12