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27
Methods of Control of Tuberculosis.—Down to the
end of 1908 no system, voluntary or compulsory, of notification of
Pulmonary Tuberculosis pertained in West Ham, and consequently
very few cases of living consumptives were brought to the knowledge
of the Public Health Department. Since 1st January, 1909, the
Public Health (Tuberculosis) Regulations, 1908, issued by the Local
Government Hoard, have been in operation, by which the notification
of Phthisis occurring in Poor Law Institutions or under the care
of District Medical Officers became compulsory. On the 22nd March,
1911, the Local Government Board issued further regulations making
Pulmonary Tuberculosis compulsorily notifiable by the Medical Officer
of any hospital in an)' out- or in-patient. This came into operation on
the 1st May, 1911. At the end of that year the Local Government
Board issued a further Order making Pulmonary Tuberculosis notifiable
as and from January 1st, 1912, by Medical Practitioners in
their private practice and also School Medical Inspectors, so from
this date all cases of Phthisis with a few exceptions became notifiable
to the Local Authority.
In December, 1912, the Local Government Board issued further
Regulations revoking all the above-mentioned Orders, and making all
forms of Tuberculosis notifiable as and from February 1st, 1913.
The number of cases notified, both pulmonary and other forms, will be
found in the Appendix, page 75.
In all cases notified a member of the Sanitary Staff visits the
home, with a view to the remedying of any existing defects in the
structural surroundings of the patient, of advising him as to the
necessity of properly using the means at his disposal, of aiding him
by verbal converse and printed literature to appreciate the value to
himself and his family of the proper treatment and disposal of his
expectoration, and of teaching him the right use of disinfectants. In
every case of a recorded death from Phthisis a similar visit is paid,
disinfection of the premises advised and, in most cases, carried out.