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93
Report of Tuberculosis Officer—continued.
85 per cent, of the cases notified, excluding those notified after
death, were seen at, or in connection with the Dispensary before
the end of the year. Probably many of the remainder will be seen
during the present year ; these latter being cases notified late in
the year under report or patients who were sent direct to sanatorium
from some other institution and who will attend Dispensary
on discharge. Similarly as regards contacts ; several contacts of
cases notified late in the year attend in the early part of the
following year and are not therefore included in the table dealing
with the examination of contacts of cases notified during the year.
39 % of the total contacts were examined before the end of the year.
66% of the child ,, ,, ,,
26 % of the adult ,, ,, ,,
It is of interest to note that the number of child contacts is
much smaller than the number of adult contacts—approximately
half the number. Figures for some years past show a similar
percentage.
In considering the number of contacts examined during the
year, it is desirable to point out that in the Ministry of Health
table (page 92), the term " contact " is restricted to persons who
come, on advice, for examination purely as the result of recent
notification of some member of the household.
If a person comes because he has a cough or other suspicious
symptoms and wishes to be examined to see if he is all right, he
is not classed as a contact but as a "suspect," even though he
may have been living in ccntact with a case of tuberculosis.
4 contacts, as defined above, were found to be tuberculous
during the year under report, but 25 persons who had another
member of their respective households notified in previous years
(18 of whom were known to be cases with Tubercle Bacilli in
sputum), were seen during 1936 and found to be suffering from
tuberculosis.
The Tuberculin Testing of child contacts of tuberculosis
was continued, the results being similar to those in previous years.