[Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Dudley County Borough.

  • Dudley (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1951
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1951] / Medical Officer of Health, Dudley County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/80 (page 16)
    IG the success of immunisation, but this happy state of affairs can only continue so long- as it is realised that diphtheria has not been banished from the country, but is only being;- held at bay by the protection offered by immunisation.. If this protection is not accepted, diphtheria may once ag-ain become the deadly menace of former years. (g^) Tuberculosis. Although the situation with regard to tuberculosis is still not as satisfactory as one would desire, there has been some improve- ment. The number of notifications of pulmonary tuberculosis during the year has dropped from 103 in 1950 to 85 for the year under review, and the deaths have decreased from 28 to 25. There has been an increase in the notifications of non-pulmonary tuber- culosis from 12 to 19, and also an increase in the deaths from this type of the disease from 4 to 8. The overall death rate from both types of tuberculosis is, therefore, practically the same as last year, but it is encouraging to note a fall both in notifications and death rate from the pulmonary type of the disease. There has been an overall increase of 25 during the year in the number of persons on the tuberculosis register suffering from pulmonary and non-pul- monary tuberculosis, but this is not altogether as bad as it seems, and can in some measure be accounted for by an increase in the work of contact tracing and increased diagnostic facilities. At the same time it should be remembered that many of the cases on the register are persons suffering from a non-active form of the disease who are leading a normal life and are merely under supervision by the tuberculosis specialist. . The tuberculosis problem is still very largely with us. In spite of new drugs and better facilities for diagnosis the problem is essentially one of prevention and results will not be seen in weeks or months. Vaccination against the disease has now been started in the town but still on a limited scale. It will be some time before the results of vaccination can be accurately assessed but a start lias been made. The possibilities of this new vaccine (BCG) will be fully explored but this must go hand in hand with all other pre- ventive measures, viz. better housing conditions, more sanatorium beds, mass radiography,etc. Throughout the country we are beginning to see a slight improvement but it is only a beginning and a great deal has still to be done. There are so many problems still to be solved. One need only mention the chronic infectious case who cannot obtain a bed in a sanatorium and whose infectivity cannot be controlled even by the new drugs. This is probably one of the greatest single factors in propagating the disease. Under existing circumstances everything possible is being done but it is still not enough. It has been said that tuberculosis in this country could be stamped out in twenty years. It could be, but we will know in 1971. The number of persons on the register at 31st December, 1951, was: — Pulmonary 389, Non-Pulmonary GO. Total 449,