[Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow.

  • Glasgow (Scotland)
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1934] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    9/446 (page 9)
    experienced during the past two or three years is now passing. The disease was mild, the number of fatal cases being 77, or 1-3 per cent. Of the cases notified, about 20 per cent, were treated at home. The number of secondary cases occurring in households where the patient was removed to hospital was only fractionally less than where the patient was nursed at home. It is now customary to permit a judicious measure of home treatment, and a further special investigation into this question is being carried out. Enteric infections have been low in incidence for several years, the number of cases (43) being the lowest yet recorded for the city. A very complete analysis of the behaviour of the enteric fevers in Glasgow is contributed by Dr. E. Bloch. The Decline of Non-Pulmonary Tuberculosis.—A decisive fall in the death rate from non-pulmonary tuberculosis has taken place in Scotland, dating from about 1880; in Glasgow the decline began at the same point and continued till 1890. There- after the incidence was practically stationary for 20 years, since when it has progressively declined at an accelerated pace, a feature which applies not only to the disease as a whole, but also to each of the forms it assumes. This behaviour of the disease is shown in a table in the Tuberculosis Section. The outstanding feature of the table is the relatively greater and more rapid fall in abdominal tuberculosis in relation to “ other forms,” which have declined to a lesser, though still considerable extent. A suggestive phenomenon is that this reduction has been most evident in Glasgow and the large towns of Scotland. Eor instance, between 1911 and 1931, a period of twenty years, the fall in Glasgow has been from 22 to 4 per 100,000 persons, a reduction of 80 per cent. Similarly, the fall within the same period in the three population groups was as follows:—Eor large towns, 22 to 5-5; for small burghs, 19 to 6; and for rural areas, 16 to 5. With regard to meningitis in the same period, the rate for Glasgow has fallen from 32 to 14; for large burghs from 30 to 12; for small burghs from 21 to 9; and from 17 to 8 in rural areas. These figures for abdominal tuberculosis indicate that the reduced opportunity for children to contract severe bovine infections has been most obvious in large towns, particularly in Glasgow. Institutional Provision for Tuberculosis.—No change has taken place during the year in the institutional provision for the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. In the treatment of this disease, various methods of collapse therapy are being employed. In this connection the out-patient clinic established