[Report 1910] / Medical Officer of Health, Burnley County Borough.

  • Burnley (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1910] / Medical Officer of Health, Burnley County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Phthisis. is warm and dirty, for the organisms are expectorated in an active condition, and peiiraps alight on some substance which helps them to grow, the warmth of the atmosphere of the room greatly favouring this. The infectivit}^ of phthisis was only demonstrated in 1882 by Professor Koch, who discovered the tubercle bacillus at that time. It is very difficult, however, to convince the majority of people of its infectivity, because the signs of the disease do not present themselves for months or even years after exposure to the infection. There does not appear to be any similarity to such well-known infectious diseases as small-pox, scarlet fever, &c., nor does it appear possible that a person may be suffering from a disease the infection of which has been obtained from another person who may have died years before. That Phthisis is our most important infectious disease is shown by the figures and chart facing this page. These figures show the excessive number of deaths caused by Phthisis ; as to its prevalence we had no means of ascertaining that until the year 1909, when compulsory notification came into force. Recognising the importance of this disease as an infectious one, the Local Sanitary Authority asked Parliament for power to enforce compulsory notification. It was obtained, and since February, 1909, notification has been carried out. This notification is in the first place to get a better knowledge of the prevalence of the disease. How far this knowledge is accurate is very uncertain, for Phthisis is very difficult in a great number of cases to diagnose, and hence many of the cases when notified are very far advanced, and it may be presumed that most of the cases are not notified in the incipient stage. The following figures show the length of time between notification and death of 105 people who died during 1910 :— Dead when notified 11 Dead within one week of notification 14 Between one week and one month 27 Between one month and two months 12 Between two months and three months 10 Between three months and four months 5 Between four months and five months 1 Between five months and six months 4