[Report 1913] / Medical Officer of Health, Somerset County Council.

  • Somerset (England). County Council.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1913] / Medical Officer of Health, Somerset County Council. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    29/122 (page 25)
    Tlio local Sanitary Authorities are the Public Health Authorities under tlie Tuber- culosis Regulations and all cases of tuberculosis have to be notified to the Medical Officers of Health of the loeal Sanitary districts. The.se officers are })riinarily responsible for the preventive measures against this disease. The an-angement in tliis county, which works well, is that tlie Healtli \'isitors sliould carry out the visits and follow up these ca.ses, working for tliis paid of tlieir work under the District Medical Otficei’s of Health. The Health \dsitors visit the ca.ses in their homes, advise tlieni as to tlie ste})s reipiired to jirevent infection, and generally try to see that they live undei- as .sanitary conditions as jiossible. All insanitary conditions are reported to the Medical Officer of Health. The houses are disinfected after death or removal. The above is only a jiart of the work of the Health \dsitors since they assist at the di.s})en.saries, induce contacts to be medically examined, make inquiries as to financial resources with a view to subsequent assistance, etc. Four whole-time Health Visitors were at work at the end of 1912. During 1913 seven additional Health \h.sitors were appointed, the number employed at the end of the year consisting of six whole-time, four half-time officers (the other half-time being devoted to school work or in one case general public health work) and one officer em})loyed for about quarter-time. The distribution of these Dealth \dsitors is shown on the map. A great deal of })reventive and educative work is being carried out by means of these officers. Their re})orts show very clearly the difficulties in the way of pro})er [)reventive steps being taken at home and, from this })oiiit of view, make disheartening reading. Most of the cases are amongst the poor and there is no adequate means of preventing infection. The majority of the houses in which the ca.ses occur have only two or three bedrooms. Frequently it is impos.sible for the sufferer to liave a bedroom for himself and he has to share it with one or other member of the family. Often indeed the })atient is found not to occu})y a separate bed. The latter condition is frequently due to ignorance of the facts as to infection, but sometimes it is due to indifference, and in other cases to ])overty and the inability to provide another bed. These ini})ortant facts are demonstrated in the following tables which deal with cases investigated by the County Healtli Department.