[Report 1929] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Swindon Borough.

  • Swindon (Wiltshire, England). Borough Council.
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1929] / Medical Officer of Health and School Medical Officer of Health, Swindon Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    the pleuro pneumonic type, 1 of which ended fatally ; 1 empyema, which is still in Hospital, but which is going to recover ; and 3 cases of uncertain type, all of which recovered. One of these was suspicious of Brucella, but was bacteriologically negative. There was no measles in Swindon and its neighbourhood during the year under review, so, for the first time since pneumonia has been accepted for admission into the Hospital, there were no cases of measles pneumonia. We are at present attempting to work out the various types of diseases which are grouped together under the name of pneumonia. It would appear to be possible to correlate the different clinical types of pneumonia with the bacteriological types of the pneu¬ mococcus and of other organisms which may produce consolidation of the lung as part of their reaction. In the study of epidemiology there is nothing approaching the importance of a correct knowledge of the distribution and typing of pneumonias. They are by no means unimportant diseases, for they kill more than any other disease except cancer, and as most types are definitely epidemic in their prevalence, it is probable that if they are studied seriously they may be reduced in frequency. As most forms of pneumonia kill rapidly, generally adults who but a week before death were in full activity and health, more often than not supporting a family, the reduction of the deaths from pneumonia is of infinitely greater importance to the community than the reduction of deaths from cancer, or from the more chronic diseases which do not kill without ample warning. There is no disease which produces such sudden and overwhelming catastrophes. So, both from the clinical and from the epidemiological point of view, pneumonia stands first in importance of all human diseases. But that what passes under the name of pneumonia is not a single disease,but a group of various diseases having nothing in common except that consolidation of the lung is part of their reaction. It is inexplicable why so little scientific attention is given to the study of the pneumonias. Had they received half the attention which is given to diseases which from their rarity are of insignificant importance to mankind, a considerable reduction would have been effected in their annual toll of two million deaths a year throughout the world. Some types of pneumonia are notifiable in most civilized communities, but notification is not satisfactory for two reasons ; first, that generally, as obtains in this country, certain types only are notifiable, and secondly, that notification is not only very faulty, but a large number of medical officers are but little insistent upon it. The clinical treatment of pneumonia is as unsatisfactory as its epidemiological consideration. Most of the treatment which has been advised for pneumonia is worthless, and much is distinctly injurious. With the exception of the uncertain types, the pneu¬ monias are self-limited diseases, never lasting beyond ten days and