[Report 1940-1945] / Medical Officer of Health, Aberdeen City.

  • Aberdeen (Scotland). City Council.
Date:
1945
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1940-1945] / Medical Officer of Health, Aberdeen City. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    29/88 (page 17)
    In I ith I ent 1 ll I to I rse H 01' II '? 18 dS 17 x-ray evidence of an early lung disease usually precedes the actual symptoms by a considerable interval. By this method, the diagnosis of the disease can be made at a relatively early stage, when the prospects of successful treatment are good. the prospects of recovery. This method can, with success, be employed in the case of persons engaged in factory work, in respect of whom periodic examinations should be made. In mass radiography, a small film, roughly the size of a postage stamp, is taken and is projected on to a screen. If there are any suspicious signs, full clinical and radiological examinations should be made. A suspected case should be retained in an institution for seven to ten days, and the investigation should include a record of the pulse and temperature, and an estimation of the blood sedimentation rate; every effort should be made to obtain a positive bacteriological result. If no sputum is obtainable, the fasting gastric contents or laryngeal swabs should be examined for tubercle bacilli. By the mass radiography method, as many as three to four hundred cases can be examined in a forenoon, Mass radiography requires a considerable degree of organisation. The number of units available is few, and a special team has to be employed. In peacetime, this method of examination could be used extensively in the case of entrants to industry, and in children of school-leaving age. The apparatus is costly and there are only three teams operating in Scotland, viz., in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Lanarkshire. It is likely that in the near future one apparatus will be shared by Aberdeen, Dundee, and surrounding counties. The apparatus is transportable and can be carried in a van and set down in a room in a factory or school, or may be fixed in the van and operated there. Mortality. It has to be pointed out that, during the war years, the civilian population only is dealt with, and deaths of service cases are excluded. The deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis and other forms of tuberculosis during the six years under review were as follows: — Pulmonary. Other. Total. 1943 70 15 85 1944 - 77 33 110 1943 74 26 100 1942 76 31 107 1941 80 23 103 1940 87 18 105 1940-1944 quinquennium 79 26 105 As regards the number of deaths from pulmonary tuberculosis at the various age-periods, it is seen from the following analysis that in 1945 the most noticeable decline was in age group 45-55, the number of deaths in 1945 being 6, as compared with an average of 13 in the quinquennium 1940-1944.