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

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

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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

    16/80 (page 16)
    Vaccination* Public Vaccination is decadent in this town. The number of vaccinations performed from year to year vary considerably, but are on the down grade. The following are the numbers, with the percentage relative to the number of births in each year, for the last 5 vears :— Year. Births. Vaccinations. Percentage Vaccinated of Children Born. 1906 975 667 66 1907 881 565 64 1908 9 55 a r ft 455 47 1909 949 460 48 1910 926 393 42 Phthisis or Pulmonary Tuberculosis* The country has been latterly much stirred in connection c/ t/ with consumptive disease, and attention has been particularly directed to the provision of sanatoria for treatment by fresh air, good feeding and regulated exercises. There has been some controversy as to the merits of the treatment and some misunderstanding as to what is to be expected of it. It is hardly to be expected that it will prevent consumption, or lessen the number of cases occurring. It is rather more of a curative effort, a matter of treatment rather than prevention. In the public managed places it is now recognised that the cases should be very carefully selected, and only those t/ t ' C' admitted who are in an initial stage of the disease, as the treatment is an expensive one, and experience has shown that in advanced cases there is little permanent improvement to be hoped for, whilst the effort and object of the institution is to assist commencing invalids to return to their occupation in a recovered condition. Ilnfortunatelv the return is often i/ to an unsuitable home and unsuitable feeding, and on account of the prejudice that now attaches to the disease and those suffering from it, it is not easy to obtain new employment when once the patient has left work to enter the sanatorium. The most recent view of the sanatorium is that it is an institution whose use should be confined to cases in the first stage of the disease in whom a cure is possible, and to instilling the knowledge of the mode of life best calculated to keep the disease at bav.