[Report 1953] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard Borough.

  • Liskeard (England). Borough Council.
Date:
1953
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1953] / Medical Officer of Health, Liskeard Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    5/24 (page 3)
    and even more the probability that tuberculosis vri.ll be eradicated in the forseeable ftiture. Tuberculosis ha.s been and still is for the maijority of its victin-n a chronic, dlsabl.ing disease whose course is measured in months and years, hot so very long ago its outcome ws.s frequentl3/’ fatal, but in the period since the end of the last war notable a.dv3nces in the treatment of tuberculosis have reduced the mortality. Thus in Cornwall the deo.th rate for tuberculosis in 1952 was about half that of the 3^ear 1946, uid. the same is trie if the figures for England and Wales bjtb exarilned, Tliis appreciable and ver^- we3.come reduction in inoirialit^^ hais infused into the outlook on tuberculosis a feeling of optinlsm that thie tumiiig in tlie long and tragic lane of tuberculosis disease has been reached, uid that the end for which so niany g;enerations have striven is in sight. There has been a tendmcy in some quarters to drav/ fran the ixiprovement in mortalitor a. conclusion that the situation in tuberculosis is shoving a general all round iaprovement. Unfortunatel;/- this is not so since the incid.ence of the disease, as measured by new caises notHied shows no reduction. 0?his is true of local i'igpres for t.his Health iurea, and for the larger nurrbers involved in the County, and the countrj?- a.s a vdiole. luring the five v'-ear loeiuod. 1948-52 the average nuiber of now cases of tuberculosis notified in No, 7 Health Ar-ea each year v/as 51 # in none of these 3’'ears d:ld tlie total differ appreciabl3’' from the tottuLs for otliei’ years the average for the five 3/earc, It is therefore true to whereas mort3lit3' Iis.s been falling, the nuxiber of i^eople the disease siio’-red no i-eduction over the period 1948-52. therefore not surprising to find that in 1953 there was no red.ucticn in the incidence of 'buberculosis in this area. On the contrar3' there was a mode^r-ate increase, the total of 63 nev/ cases representing a 24% increase over the average for the previous five 3''ears, and being 9 above the previous hichest total of 54 cases in 1952. It would obviously not be reasonable or vri-se to talce an undul3:' pessimistic view of these figTires which Pure for one 3/ear orly. It ma3' vrell be that in 1954 bhe situation vUl improve sind figures will return to a j.aore nori;iDl level. Nevertheless it appea-rs that there is at present no justification for much of the optimism which the reduced. mortalit3'' rate havs engendered. Ttiberculosis is still prevalent to the extcrxt that every year out of evei^^ thousand people in this .i^ncea one or two contract the clisease and. are thereby disabled for a long period, find becomo potential soicrces of iut'ection to others. or from Qa.j that contracting It is At this point it is appropriate that the possible causes for the increased incidence of tuberculosis be e.ianiined, and here we lea.ve the certainty of facts cuid. figures, and enter the realms where conjecture plays a large part .in providing the ans'wer to our questions, I think it is reasonable to suppose that no single cause is responsible for the increase, and to state further that the broad general reasons for t.he increase are tvrofold. In the first place there probably has been some real increase in the amount of -tuberculosis jjnfection in the conraunit3'', but it is unlikely that this accoujits for all the increase in the incidence of -blie disease. In the second place be-tter and more efficient methods of recognising tlie disease have been responsible for tlie bringing to li^it of ca.ses wJiich were previousl3f overlooked. Some two years ago -the Ches'b Clinic services in East Cornwall ■v';ere reorganised and based on Plymouth i^istead. of West Connvall. YJhen. this re- orgajiisation took place Dr. J, C, ilellor was appointed as Chest Pb3’-si.ci8n to a. Clinical Ai-f;a which included East Com.wall, About the same tiime the Cornwall C:;unty Council appointed a full-time 'iiiberculosis Health Visitor, Jviiss S.L. Lumton, By 'their enthusiasm and hficrd work Dr. Mellor and Tiiss Liu'iton have provided 3