Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Walthamstow]
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45
æmia, Pyæmia, Septic Peritonitis, Septic Metritis and other septic
inflammation in the pelvis occurring as the direct result of childbirth "
should be returned as Puerperal Fever. In every case notice was sent
to the nurse in attendance as to the precautions and measures she
should take to prevent the spreading of the disease, but in no case could
she be held accountable for the infection. The death rate from "Accidents
and Diseases of Parturition" was T per 1,000 of the population.
PHTHISIS OR CONSUMPTION.
Ninety-eight deaths were registered from this disease as compared
with 87 the previous year, and 86 in 1901.
Including Tuberculosis of the Meninges 22; and other forms of
Tuberculosis 22, the deaths due to this preventable disease were 142
equal to a rate of T33 per 1,000 of the population or one-eighth of the
total deaths. Of the total deaths, 298 occurring between 25 and
45 years, 74, or one-fourth, occurred from Consumption.
Contrasted with the deaths from Measles (52), Scarlatina (6), Whooping
Cough (34), Diphtheria (17), Enteric Fever (19), Tuberculosis
caused 14 more deaths than all these infectious diseases put together.
Bearing in mind the period of life at which Tuberculosis causes the
greatest' death-rate, the prevention of this disease assumes a greater
importance than all the other infectious diseases put together.
The great loss to the community can be further gauged by bearing in
mind that the ordinary time consumptives suffer is 30 to 40 times longer
than in the other diseases.
The only measure taken by your authority is the disinfection of rooms
where a consumptive has died. Before death infectivity is constant and
active, and last year I suggested that every practitioner should be
invited to send the sputum of any suspicious or doubtful case to
Dr. Thresh for bacteriological diagnosis and the expense paid by your
authority.
If the diagnosis prove positive, notification should follow, and a fee
paid as under the Act of 1889.
The disease is typically preventive, and the loss to the community
and the sufferer very great.
With the fuller knowledge of the number of sufferers in your midst
some further effective measures might be adopted.