[Report 1959] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow.

  • Glasgow (Scotland)
Date:
1959
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1959] / Medical Officer of Health, Glasgow. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/410 (page 16)
    the middle of February. Patients removed to hospital were very ill in the main with pneumonia complicating bronchitis. The majority of the hospital cases were not influenza but the aftermath of the smog in early February. The Virologist reported that there was present in the Glasgow area both Viruses A and B. Compared with the influenza epidemic of 1957 there was probably half to a third the number of case-'. Virus A was also isolated in two cases of influenzal illness among the herdsmen at the Kelvin Hall Dairy Show. The increased prevalence was not reflected in any marked increase in the new claims for benefit under the National Insurance Scheme. Influenza was present (mainly Virus B) in most parts of the world during the first six months of 1959. Pneumonia. There were 4,469 cases of primary pneumonia and 75 of influenzal pneumonia notified during the year. Some 24 per cent, of the primary pneumonia cases were over 65 years of age. There were 700 deaths from acute primary pneumonia, half of them occurring in the first three months of the )^ear. Bronchitis. The high incidence of deaths from bronchitis in December, 195S, and January and February, 1959, was associated with the exceptionallv cold foggy weather of the period and the smog of 30th November and 1st December, 1958, and 31st January to 3rd February, 1959. The number of deaths from bronchitis for the year was 11 per cent, above the 1958 figure and 62 per cent, above the number in 1957, which could be regarded as an average year. The death rate per 100,000 from bronchitis in Glasgow, 79-3 in 1958, was the highest of any Scottish city, but was less than the rates for Liverpool and Manchester. Tuberculosis. The incidence of pulmonary tuberculosis was the lowest ever recorded, with 1,159 new cases notified, a decrease of 181 on 1958. '1 he 1959 incidence is now 30 per cent, below the pre-war average and almost 50 per cent, of the 1956 incidence. This decrease is undoubtedly associated with the X-ray Campaign of 1957, but also with the intensive contact tracing and preventive work being carried out by the Depart- ment. I here were 286 deaths, or 27 per 100,000 compared with 35 per 100,000 in 1958. Adjusting the Glasgow statistics to conform with those of the Registrar General, the pulmonary tuberculosis death rate