London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Walthamstow 1909

[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Walthamstow]

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60
PHTHISIS OR CONSUMPTION.
The deaths registered from this disease were 108, as compared with
103 in 1908, 104 in 1907, 128 in 1906, 93 in 1905 and 96 in 1904.
Sixteen deaths were also registered from Tuberculosis of Meninges,
and 28 from other forms of the disease, as compared with 18 and 20
in 1908, and 27 and 26 in 1907.
The total deaths, 142, represent a rate of 1.04 per 1,000 of the population,
and 12 per cent. or one-eighth of the deaths from all causes.
Were these deaths and those under 1 year of age excluded, our crude
death-rate would be 6 instead of 9 per 1,000 or a possible saving of 423
lives.
The deaths from Tuberculosis are as truly preventable as those from
Diphtheria, both diseases being the results of specific infections.
In the early part of the year I sent to every medical practitioner of
the district, and to every member of the Council, a copy of the
"Memorandum, by the Medical Officer of the Local Government
Board, on the Administrative Measures that were suggested to be taken
against Tuberculosis, in pursuance of the Public Health (Tuberculosis)
Regulations Order of 1908."
The administrative measures suggested have been carried out as far
as the loose methods in carrying out the regulations would permit.
The regulations stipulated that the Medical Officer of a Poor-Law
Institution shall, within 48 hours after his first recognition of the
symptoms of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in the case of a poor person,
post to the Medical Officer of Health for the Sanitary District in which
the person resided, immediately before he becomes an inmate of the
institution, a notification of the case, and that a similar notification
shall be posted by the District Medical Officer in the case of any poor
person suffering from the disease, on whom he is in medical attendance
according to his agreement with a Board of Guardians.
In two instances death preceded notification by five and four days,
and followed within three days two notifications, and within a week in
four others !
Added to this, many futile visits were made owing to incorrect information
supplied.