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46
the system of voluntary notification of the disease should be adopted
throughout London."
The Public Health Committee, to whom the matter was referred,
reported in favour of adopting the system of voluntary notification
of the disease in the Borough. This view was approved of by the
Council, and from this date phthisis has been a voluntary notifiable
disease in Hackney. The fee payable to the Medical Practitioner is
the same as that for the other notifiable diseases.
The first case was notified on the 9th June, 1906, and from that
date to the end of the year 44 cases had been notified. The
procedure adopted on notification is, if allowed by the patient, the
occasional disinfection of dwelling, bedding and clothes, &c., giving
instruction by means of a leaflet sent to the premises, describing the
nature of the disease and the means to be adopted to prevent its
spread. The result of voluntary notification of phthisis will, I
believe, result in educating the public to know the real nature of
this disease.
During the year, 42 specimens of sputa from persons suspected to
be suffering from phthisis were bacteriologically examined : in 10 of
the specimens the examination gave positive; in 32, negative
results.
Cancer.—The number of deaths in Hackney due to this disease
during 1906 was 175. This is 28 deaths less than the number
dying from the same disease during 1905. The annual death rate
is '75 per thousand living.